Considering that I perhaps was supposed to be dead or dying, or somehow incapable of typing this and the hundreds of SMSes today, I am seriously thankful for surviving a car accident without looking like I've even collided with a car. The nurses couldn't believe it when I replied to them inquiring about what roughed me up, since I have only abrasions on my left elbow, on the left lower part of my torso (where the car hit me), and thighs and knees. No broken bones or internal injury--I was subjected to X-raying (cool) and ultrasound (wicked cool!). I looked like as if I had a fall--and not even a very bad one at that.
Anyway, I don't think it's everday when an accident like this happens ("It certainly is a unique experience!"), so I'd chronicle it for myself to read some other time and laugh (don't we always laugh when we look back at all the bad things that'd happened in the past?)
Currently, I feel surreal--
woah, dude--a car kissed me!--and I have weird craving for Pizza Hut. Uhm, I guess the crash must have knocked something loose after all.
So what have I learnt today?
1. Cross the road at only zebra crossings and pedestrian bridges
2. Strangers can be really nice to you and hug you when you're in pain and wish your mom's here to hug it away
3. I need to wake up even earlier so as to reach school early, and do not need to dash across roads to race against the bell.
(And that bell--it's really like Aaron's school bus driver isn't it; coming earlier and earlier. I remember that it used to ring at 0745 in year 1, and the second bell at 0750. Apparently, it's somehow caught a hold of a principle I never manage to learn: the earlier, the better.)
Things are a little bit hazy, but thankfully my memories stayed with me. I remember panicking about being late for school (again) and looking left, right and dashed across the first lane, following a guy in front of me (logic was, if I stick close to him and he doesn't get hit, it means that I wouldn't either). Then somehow, when I started on the second lane (here's the hazy part--can't remember what I did before getting hit), I felt something on my torso/hip and it felt like getting hit by a paintball. A flash of silver--oohhh! A car! And then somehow the world was turned upside down, left right, all around, like I'm watching Cloverfield where the camera would be swinging around wildly and I heard the screeching of tires (later on, I'd found out that I've been flung two meters away). Then I realised that I got hit by a car, and I wondered if I was about to meet my maker. Then I told myself how stupid can a girl be to get hit by a car (even little kids know how to cross the road properly). Then I saw the ground--I couldn't remember the impact my body made against it; suddenly I just found mysef on the wet asphalt, spread-eagled--face down on the road, shirt riding up my back (oh, that was embarassing).
There were a lot of thoughts racing through my mind. I cursed myself 'cause I know that I just landed myself in a huge heap of trouble (my parents would
kill me--and they did scream at me after they found out)--and the first thing I did was to apologise to the driver. Then I wondered how ridiculous I look lying on the middle of the road like that and whether anyone had taken any picture for Stomp or Newpaper or whatever to complete my embarassment. Then I realised that I'm not bleeding ('cept from the abrasions on my knees), I'm still in one piece--woah; this isn't how it's like in the TV. Then I saw the people who'd formed a ring around me, and I cursed myself again for causing trouble for
other people.
Then I saw the primary school kids somewhere behind watching in silence. That's right, kids: stay in school, don't do drugs, and look before you cross. Glad I can be of a service.
The ambulance took thirty-ish minutes to come. By that time, the pedestrians had helped me to sit at the side of the road. Two women were taking care of me; a doctor dressed up my wounds; and Irsyad's mom, who'd pulled over after seeing a kid in NUS High uniform at the side of the road, tried to reach the school, and then finally called up Kevin from my contact list.
Anyway, being stretchered into the ambulance is like this weird unique experience--wonder if that's what footballers experience whenever they get a baadd tackle or when they mysteriously sprain themselves (Uh oh; reminded of my favorite injured footballer. Klose--you'd better be well enough to play tomorrow!). It's like riding an elephant while lying flat on your back and wearing that neck-prop thing (it was a precaution just in case I injured my neck--naw, it was fine). The strapping in in the ambulance to make sure my neck and my spine doesn't move and bounce with the ambulance was quite uncomfortable. Felt like there's a pair of two massive balloons inflating against my cheeks.
And then: the ICU! Granted, it ain't as exciting as how House and Grey's Anatomy made it out to be, but there were sick people coming in, and nurses and doctors running around everywhere--well, this is where I wanna work when I grow up later, so I absorbed all of it in. The nurses undressed me and put me into that hospital gown just like the on in medical TV shows, and then I was wheeled off to wait for my turn to be X-Rayed.
I told Camille the only thing I'm in danger of dying from is boredom--after all, the excitement of imagining oneself working together with the doctors and nurses who rush past time and again would ebb away after a while. But there was a funny moment when the nurses tried to talk to the patient next to me--at that time, I was probably the youngest patient in the room; senior citizens abound!--and instead she tried to grope one of the nurse's nose, who was freaked out after she did that to her again and again ("She hates my face! Look at her staring at me!"). When a young doctor read out from the charts her name to confirm, she didn't reply--she groaned again as she'd always done when people talk to her and expect a response, and grabbed the chart--I stiffled a giggle then.
Then I got not only one, but two injections--a tetanus shot, and painkillers ("Butbutbut, I had my tetanus shot when I was a baby, and I'm not in pain anymore!") The tetanus shot on my arm was okay, but the painkillers one was painful--in fact, the only thing that's preventing me from walking, bouncing and perhaps dancing right now is the painkiller shot, which still leaves my thigh so numb and painful.
A Traffic Police came to talk to me--I was quite scared out of my mind since I was convinced that I did something illegal and I so do not want to go to jail or have something on my permanent record. Anyway, Divya and Kevin said that jaywalking's an offence when done within 50m of the traffic light--and I wasn't. But I'd need to make a police record and have my statement taken down. Apparently, I don't need a lawyer for that--hopefully I won't be in trouble.
I got my torso, my pelvis, my thigh and my knee X-rayed quickly. Before the X-raying, the nurses asked me some standard questions like how old are you, and what happened to you, but the one that I took sometime to answer was when they asked me: "Are you pregnant?" Well, I now know that the problem of teen pregnancy is sadly so rampant that it's a standard safety question they ask teenagers nowadays, and I wanted to tell her that no, I'm still a proud virgin who doesn't believe in sex before marriage (so don't worry, because such kind of people still exist), but that came out as a simple "No". Oh well. Then I waited, and waited for the results. It was more comfortable waiting then 'cause someone had finally given me a pillow and I could lie on my soaked bed trolley more comfortably. Spent the time SMSing, playing Icy Tower (bless you, Free Lunch Design for creating that game) and trying to think of an excuse to tell to my family since I hadn't told them yet.
("Hey, Dad? Guess what? I got hit by a car--now, don't worry, don't raise your voice. I'm fine, see? I thought it was quite a unique experience! No, don't catch the next flight back to Singapore--I'm fine really. Yeah, okay, I've learnt my lesson, okay? I'd always wear my glasses before crossing the road.")
("I tripped and fell and injured my elbow, my stomach and my knees. Uh, I rolled down a hill?")
The jury was then out with the verdict: I'm curiously very very fine ("You're very lucky for someone who just got into a car accident", the doctor said.) But before giving me a clean bill of health, he'd need to do an ultrasound on my organs, just to make sure they haven't been turned into Jell-O or something. And they were functioning as perfectly well as they should, and as a bonus, I get to see my two kidneys, my full bladder and my stomach in real time action. Enchanting.
And so I was discharged--after I could walk properly. My first attempt was horrible, but after warming up my thighs for an hour or so, I was ready, and I could go to the toilet, and sit on the toilet bowl (sitting's still kinda painful. oof) and empty that bladder which I saw just over an hour ago. My uniform was too wet to change back into, and so I'm a proud owner of yellow scrubs and a pair of hospital slippers. to remember the nice nurses by. Couldn't wait to be discharged, since I thought if I was warded, I would be in bed an entire day (I'd just explode from the boredom) and they would need to call my parents to arrange the payment and stuff.
And so, I proudly limped out of the ICU and towards the pharmacy, where I proudly paid $3.95 for my own medicine (I paid for my own medicine! Oh gosh, I'm a mature big kid now!) Dr Wong, Mr Samuel Lee, Mr Kevin and Ms Eunice Chan then came (I'm still a bit shocked at the number of teachers who turned up--first thing that came to my mind was that I'd troubled so many people and even teachers), marking the end of my little adventure in the ICU. Mr Lim Joon Ling was waiting outside, and all teachers except for Dr Wong and Mr Lee went back to school for their classes.
As soon as the three of us reached my front door, I knew an entirely new adventure awaits, and that is: tell your family that you were just involved in a car accident! They got mad, as I expected, and my ears did ring. That adventure's nowhere complete yet, since I haven't told my sister (I've forbidden anyone from telling her--my gramma told my parents even though I told her I'd call them myself, which resulted in probably a high interlocal phone bill and lots and lots of screaming) yet. My brother freaked out enough when he went home to discover his beloved older sister as an accident survivor. But having an even smaller attention span than mine, he let up soon enough, and was going on and on about the letter he'd written to New Paper and got published.
(Check out today's New Paper, page 67! He wrote about how Manchester United is too dependant on that twerp Ronaldo.)
I did wonder how I managed to survive a car accident just like that. The impact between a car--especially one that is in motion--and a human body would result in more damage than this. For one, I was hit on the lower torso, when most people involved in a car accident would be hit on their chest, their legs or worse, head. I was flung 2 frikkin meters, but the only damage from that was the abrasions on my knees and elbow--my head, my neck and my spine are all fine. The doctor said it's as if I had some kind of protection--like a shield. I could joke about my thick layer of fat saving my life (so all of you out there: go gain weight!), but I know that it just has to be divine intervention. You can laugh at me when I say that my guardian angel who'd helped me out on Monday (it involved me, walking in the rain in clementi avenue 1, and a total stranger giving me his umbrella for free, and without hesitation. I still have that umbrella--it protected me against the rain today as I lay on the road) was there again for me today. The fact that the driver didn't run away, and stayed there till the ambulance come, and he didn't scold me as far as I knew, and a doctor from a nearbly clinic was passing by, and Irsyad's mom and the two women who'd comforted me--too much of a coincidence?
The one main thing that I've learnt today, I guess, is that God hasn't left me as I thought he has this week, and that He wants me to know that there are people--even strangers--who can still care for me (I'm not emo, kay thanks, but honestly I used to think that I'm frikkin' alone in the world--no really, I'm not emo). Thanks to all of you who'd sent me SMSes (they also helped me deal with boredom!), and to all the teachers who were there for me. I'd stop being cynical over people's help and concern, and I'd be thankful for everything (even the depressing mark I got for English test), everyone in my life since I could have lost all of those this morning.
And oh yeah, I'd never,
ever jaywalk again.
(Boyzone is really good to listen to when you're recuperating, btw). :D
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OH LOL WEAPON X: FIRST CLASS NOW INCOPORATES GAMBIT INTO HIS LIFE STORY.Thoughts:
1) since when is Remy that old to deserve a place in Wolverine' past?
2) it's going to be screwed up, and they'd try so hard to squeeze this into Remy's and Logan's crowded past it's going to be painful.
3) I want to see Cindy Crawford, Tom Cruise and Jay Leno in Wolverine's origin, since they link everyone to his frikkin' origin nowadays.
4) the things they'd do to make a movie cannon...
... I need to get my hands on this comic. I need to subscribe to Marvel's Digital Comics--this can only mean that I need a frikkin' job to sponsor my geekdom.
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amused
bored
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