Well hello, strangers. It’s been a while!
It was 3 weeks ago today that I was walking home from chambers, just after dark, when out of nowhere a guy on an e-scooter (one of the hire scheme ones) rode into me from the left, knocking me sideways. He was riding on the pavement, and so I really had not expected him to be there. I took most of the fall on my right hip and thigh, but some through my elbow, and with the speed I fell at my head followed through and hit the tarmac. Luckily, I landed in a little lay-by rather than under the wheels or onto the bonnet of a passing car, and I didn’t lose consciousness. But, as with any head injury, there was rather a lot of blood. Insofar as being knocked over can be lucky, the fall was seen by a second year medical student, who rushed over to administer first aid. I didn’t get his name, but he was great, and has the ability to remain calm under pressure and reassure his patients mastered already. Two other lovely first year students also stopped to help out, and one ran to the shops for clean tissues. I held everything together pretty well until T arrived to pick me up and take me home, at which point the shock kicked in, and I broke down into a sobbing, hyperventilating mess. As I hadn’t lost consciousness and the cuts could be steri-stripped and dressed at home, a trip to A&E was thankfully not needed, but it’s fair to say that I was in quite a lot of pain, and I didn’t get much sleep that night. I took the Saturday very easy indeed, with lots of little naps around the bare essentials of work which had to be done, and managed to sleep much better that night. By Sunday, I could at least move my arms more easily, so was able to go to orchestra. I’d already decided I was going to opt out of leading my section, as I really wasn’t sure how much of the rehearsal I’d manage, and I’d not been able to get the practice sessions in I’d had planned on Friday and Saturday due to the pain. Thankfully, I was able to manage all of the rehearsal, although I definitely wasn’t putting as much energy into my playing as usual! I was also lucky that my 4 day hearing (starting on the Tuesday) went short, and so I was able to take the Wednesday as a duvet day and catch up on a bit more rest.
The cuts to my head gradually healed and the bruises to my arms began to fade (I had a nice, round imprint of a Voi e-scooter handle on my left arm, as well as bruising on my right elbow from where I landed). What took longer to settle was the soft tissue damage from taking such a hard fall on my right hand side. I’ve had issues with my right sacroiliac joint before, and that flared up again, and the hamstring, iliotibial band (kind of goes down the outside of your thigh from your hip to your knee) and adductor muscles (inside of your thigh) were all super-tight. I was just about able to jog/walk by the following Saturday, but I could feel that the muscles were right on the edge. I’ve had almost two weeks of jog/walking, although it’s now run/walking, and although there’s still some tightness there, it is much improved. I’m hoping that over the next 5-10 days I can progress to steady running and then increase the distance a bit more so that I can go back to exploring other parts of Bristol again. I’m still rather hypervigilant as a pedestrian, but I’m hoping my confidence will gradually build.
running home for christmas 