dani in davis: Vacation Fail

Hi friends, family,

Vacation fail. Many of you know I am spending the week in Kauai with Nico and his family. I didn't expect my vacation to end up quite like it has.

Nico pushed me off a cliff, and I landed in the ER. Ha ha ha... kidding. Nico had nothing to do with my gashed shin.

I fell while on an awesome hike (for experienced hikers!) through the Kauaiian rainforest. I knew as soon as I looked down at my shin post fall and saw my adipose tissue bulging out of a large gaping hole in my leg and blood gushing everywhere that this was going to be serious. Luckily we had already reached our destination and were on our way back when this happened or else I would have been even more disappointed.

I quickly closed the hole with my hands. Natalie, a family friend, donated her shirt to wrap around the laceration. Nico got all Eagle Scout and ripped his shirt into strips to tie up the wound, too. Nico's sister, Jill, held me down while I screamed my lungs out while they were tying my wound up. As you can imagine, it hurt like hell. Camilla, Nico's mom, gave me a plant to bite down on. She squeezed some ginger soap plant onto the laceration hoping it would work as a simple antiseptic/antibiotic until I got down the hill.

Given the nature of the hike, we were all covered in mud. Hence, my legs were covered in mud. I was one dirty Dani. Not such a good thing for an open wound.

After the shirt donations and the screaming, we finally got my leg all tied up, super tight. I had enough adrenaline to make it the mile or so down the rest of the trail. It took us about 1 hr to get back down, Nico carrying me across streams so I wouldn't get my leg wet. Me crawling with one leg over, across and through boulders, trees and bamboo forests. It was like an episode of Survivor. I think the one thing that kept me going was knowing how expensive (and impossible) it would have been to have to be air-lifted out of the rainforest.

We finally made it to the car, and I was exhausted. It was a long ride to the ER, but we finally got there. We took pictures when we arrived (of course!) of my t-shirt bandage and me in the wheel chair with Natalie and Jill posing.

My Dr, Dr. Lee (white like me... super cool to meet another white 'Lee'), was really great. The nurses were super sweet. I had also stubbed my toe prior to the major fall that took out my shin and was covered with millions of mosquito bites (you know how much the mosquitoes love me), so ER staff kept joking about the need to treat not only my injured toe and my mosquito bites by my massive laceration.

After taking a look at my legs, Dr. Lee asked if I was even wearing shoes since every inch of my legs were covered in mud, including my feet. Yes, I was. I was wearing my Chaco's my hiking sandals, which don't provide much coverage to my feet. When I asked about scarring, he laughed and said there was no way of getting out of this scar. Nico thinks the scar is going to make me even sexier, more rugged. I think not. Sad face.

My nurse, Amy, came back in to clean me up a bit. Then Dr. Lee gave me local anesthetic before cleaning out my laceration. The local anesthetic hurt just as bad as Nico tying the t-shirt bandages onto my legs on the trail. I made Dr. Lee shut the door before he administered the anesthetic knowing I would be screaming my head off. Luckily, Nico was there to hold me while I was administered 8-10 shots around the two areas that needed the most cleaning. Not a happy experience. The nurses joked afterward that they heard me screaming down the hall. They said they weren't sure if I was laughing or sobbing... silly.

Luckily, I got a tetanus shot right before India two years ago, so I didn't have to get another shot. =) =) =)

Because I was so dirty, Dr. Lee decided to NOT suture my laceration until Thursday. So, Amy irrigated the two lacerations with saline solution and bandaged me up. They prescribed me with Vicodin (yippee!) and sent me on my way with a large hole in my shin, and strict instructions to change the bandages and clean the wound 2x a day. I can't get the laceration wet. I can't drink alcohol while taking Vicodin. I can't walk (it hurts to bad!). I can't do ANYTHING!

After we left the ER we went to Longs Drugs to pick up additional dressings and my drugs. Nico carried me through Longs since I couldn't walk. Back home at the Marriott, we checked out a wheel chair and got me back to the room. Jill and Natalie made us sushi for dinner. Then I went to bed after taking two Vicodin and experiencing my face going numb from taking too many pills.

This morning I woke up before anyone else and hobbled my smelly self (I still hadn't been able to shower) to the bathroom. I plopped myself into the tub with my right wounded leg propped out. Unfortunately I still got it wet, so I had to change the dressing, which was probably a good thing because it was pretty nasty from the last 12 hours.

Nico, Jill, Natalie, David and Camilla are all taking great care of me. David checked me out a pair of crutches so I wouldn't be so debilitated on the wheel chair (YAY! FREEDOM!). I'm just going to take my Vicodin and read my books and hang out by the pool for the next three days. I'm pretty sad, and depressed, but I'd much rather be here in Kauai, healing, than back in Davis not being able to bike or get up and down my stairs.

Stitches on Thursday. More news to come.

I'm sending you lots of love and hugs and good vibes from Kauai! Send me the same, and hopefully I will be able to walk/bike when I get back into Davis. Work is going to suck if I have to hobble around on crutches for the next couple of weeks.

I included a few pictures (and reserved the most gruesome ones for later, upon request, for those who want to get up close and personal with the hole in my shin), below.

Love, and lacerations,

Dani