#firstxray

I just had the most insane experience yesterday, I feel like I am still half processing it and I can’t go about my day until I write everything down. 

Yesterday at around 6 pm, I tried to walk out onto the balcony of my apartment, with the door still closed. I walked straight into it with my knee and broke it into huge ass chunks, it took me and my partner a couple of seconds to even realize I had broken the glass. After what it felt like forever in slow-mo, I realized I had a huge gash on my shin and it was quickly spilling out blood, lots of blood. It’s weird how calm I felt, I should have been a nurse or a doctor in another life. My partner was not particularly calm, I could tell he was freaking out, but i’ve had first aid training before and I knew exactly what to do: put pressure on the wound, elevate it above your heart and cover yourself with something warm to avoid going into shock.  Thank Godess my father in law is still in Colombia, we called him, he came to our apartment in less than two minutes and got me to the hospital in less than ten. And.... that’s where my story stops being fast-paced. The hospital is just INSANELY slow. I mean, I guess it makes sense with the sheer amount of people they have now because of COVID, and they probably have more security measures, but damn, that was slow.  It took them at least an hour and a half to actually admit me into the emergency room, my leg just pulsing away precious blood as I waited outside the consulting rooms with the other non-priority patients like me. Then I went in and they put some pain killers and hydration in me through a catheter, waiting for at least another hour and a half. Then came the doctors, with their terrible sense of human sensitivity, coming to tell me I might have broken my leg and an x-ray was needed. This is when my calm demeanor broke down.  I just felt so stupid, like something so ridiculous as not noticing where I was walking was just going to be so horribly expensive and maybe now even I’d broken a leg??? I was just worried sick about how much this stupid thing was going to cost me.  So.... my leg wasn’t actually broken. Huzzah! But I did get my first x-ray, which was exciting. I got a what felt like a shit ton of stitches, and seven hours later I got to simply walk out the door.  it. was. insane. 

Thankfully this all happened in Colombia, where everything is just insanely cheap. My entire trip to the hospital cost me a mere 90 USD (which is basically insane in and of itself).