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Published: November 25th 2008
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Some Freak Accident.....
I slipped, fell on my right side, broke my eyeglasses.By some freak accident, the ’stem’ (that part that rides on the ear) got stuck just below my right eyebrow. The stem was ‘hanging’ since that little screw got stuck![ This is an email I hurriedly sent to my family who were worrying about my unfortunate mishap in Nanjing. I sent this email while cooped up in my hotel room while my 2 nieces went out to explore Nanjing. Thought I had to tell the entire story to my family back home to quell their worries.
Cheap Flights, Nightmarish Departure and Arrival Times
Taking a late night flight from Manila, we arrived in Shanghai midnight of September 21-22. Managed to sleep a few hours before taking the 2 hour train to
Nanjing with the Sanchezes. We did not waste time as we promptly hired a van to cover the sites in historic Nanjing. It was a day certainly not wasted. We covered a lot of ground in Nanjing, enough photo ops and exhausted our energy levels like there was no tomorrow.
The Mishap
Back at the hotel by 5pm, we rested before venturing out again by 7pm to sample Nanjing’s salted duck dinner. Just Mario, Gabz, Sarah, Mayette and I. Horror of horrors!! Just a block off the hotel, i took a nasty fall. I slipped, fell on my right side, broke my
eyeglasses. The right side of my face hit the pavement so hard it split my eyeglasses into 2.
By some freak accident, the ’stem’ (that part that rides on the ear) got stuck just below my right eyebrow. The stem was ‘hanging’ since that little screw got stuck! We decided to head back to the hotel -thank God i didn’t break any bone- to seek help. The hospital is just at the back of the hotel. The night manager of
Lakeview Xuanwu Hotel followed and stayed with us at the hospital. It would have been a different story if young
Mr. Richard Fu wasn’t with us. When the Chinese doctors said they had to operate on me (what a scare!), Richard was there to explain the docs just needed to make an incision to pull out the screw and check if any other part of the eyeglasses got stuck inside. Prior to Richard's arrival, imagine me being laid and forced flat on a gurney with dear old me "fighting" to get up, saying "no operation". Gosh, that scared the hell out of me. Surgery in Nanjing! Who cares if I looked like
Frankinstein with this eyeglass "stem"
hanging loose from my temple? Thank God for Richard I finally understood that the good old doctor simply meant "an incision". Lost in translation, indeed!
The ordeal - the ‘operation’, the ultrasound to search for a ‘missing’ plastic cap covering the screw, the anti-tetanus injections, etc- lasted 3 hours. I am lucky God sent so many angels — the Sanchezes, Sarah and Mayette, my new friends Richard from the hotel, this young doctor from the emergency room who spoke good english, the medical intern who held my hand the entire time in the O.R. while mumbling ‘do not be afraid, we will take care of you’ in that very thick chinese accent, and the good old doctor who didn’t speak a single english word but expressed compassion no words are necessary!
Except for a bruised right knee, a swollen thumb, a patch near my right brow which has begun to swell, I am ok. By God’s mercy, I am alright enough to take the train back to shanghai in a few hours. Nanjing gave me a ’souvenir’ and I am forever grateful to my angels. Please help me pray with thanksgiving to God for taking good
care of me…….
All's well . 😊
P.S. Richard is getting married soon, and I am hoping he will have his honeymoon in the Philippines so I
can in turn be an ‘angel’ to him and his bride.
Also, I asked the good old Chinese doctor to please write down everything he did on me including the meds and injections so I can show them to my local doctor when I got to Manila. He did. But in Chinese characters! When i got home, all the Chinese doctors I know could not understand the Chinese characters, saying it is "old" Chinese. Whatever that meant. I had to go to an old Chinese school to find a "good, old" teacher and have him translate for me. How about that? 😊
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