I am an expert on injuries. I have been broken, sprained, concussed, burned, cut, and caught. I have never broken my nose, but I have been hit so hard on multiple occasions that it bleeds. I broke my foot playing basketball in inappropriate shoes. I tore a ligament in my knee when I was younger when my soccer cleat got stuck in the mud. I got my head stuck between two bars of a railing when I was 3-ish (you can blame my Dumbo ears). We had to call 911 when I got my knee stuck between two planks on a swing set when I was in middle school. I have slipped down wooden stairs from the top step in socks with a baby in arms. I am clumsy, but I try to take precautions as best as I can.
My worst travel injury by far has to be the one that I am still recovering from. This story is so cool that it does not sound real, but this is 100% fact.
When I was in Tanzania, we had a one week break towards the middle of our 2 months of teaching/volunteering. It was at this point that we were allowed to travel or just rest or whatever we wanted to do. A group of 8 of us took the first part of our week off and traveled to Uganda to raft in the Nile River. (Yes, the one that is located in Egypt, but also flows through Sudan [and at this point in time, South Sudan] and Uganda). I tend to be adventurous, but I have never been rafting before, unless you count drifting lazily down the Delaware River (which I don’t).
It was pretty intense for somebody who has no experience rafting, however, it was absolutely amazing, and really, the best choice between it and the alternative, a safari. I can safari when I’m old!
As we are moving along, we come to a pretty intense rapid with a 7-foot drop on one side and a nice way down on the other. Our guide asks us if we want to take the nice way down or the other way down. Obviously, we are all young and reckless (not really), so we decide to try for the 7 foot drop. Our guide specifically tells us how to handle this drop, by tucking our heads once we start to go over so we don’t hurt ourselves.
I tucked my head, but when we dropped, it went up and straight into the helmet of the girl in front of me. I blacked out for a few seconds and my face hurt, a lot. I thought I broke my cheek, the pain was so intense, but I seemed fine after some Advil. I didn’t really think about much until I realize the entire right side of my face became really sensitive to touch and I started getting headaches.
I had to go see a doctor and apparently I was concussed and didn’t realize it, and because of the impact, I have some nerve damage that is still there, although not as bad as it used to be. At one point, I couldn’t even brush my hair on that side. Now, it just a small portion of how much it used to be damaged, and it no longer hurts, just tingles, which I presume to mean that it is almost done healing.
Here’s to hoping!
So tell me, what is your worst travel injury? Or your worst travel illness?
2 comments:
Oh well that sucks, although I presume that it was maybe worth it?
I loce traveling as well even though I have not done much traveling due to a lack of resources, but during the spring break of 2009 I went on a trip to Rome and Paris with my English teacher and a group of students. My mom says that I do not take well to traveling, that I always get sick or something happens to me, I sprain something or I am drowning in the nearest water body. But this time I decided that nothing was going to happen, after all Paris was and still is my dream city. But before getting on the plane at SFO I had Burger King and afterward felt really sick to my stomach, I thought that it was just my nerves mixed with my excitement. But it was not. The whole week that I spent in Europe I spent it throwing up everywhere after every meal, which were delicious and could not help myself to not eat them even though I knew I was going to end up hurling, even once on the streets of Rome because I could not hold it in. All in all, the trip was amazing and the sights gorgeous but my weak stomach just could not endure it.
Ooo... I'm going to make a post about throwing up in an airport that I'm sure you can relate to. I should have it up before August!
Post a Comment