Blog > Stories > Fiction > Three Months In Hell – Part 3
Three Months In Hell – Part 3
Written by botox on Monday, February 23, 2009
This is part 3 of the Three Months in Hell story by Botox. It keeps getting better and better. Sean
She walked over, looked down into my face, shook her head from side to side, as if rubbing it in that I was unable to move my head, and said in that southern drawl, "Darlin, I’m afraid we can’t do much for you just yet. I am going to fit a foley catheter so you don’t have to worry about it, you hear."
I was still getting used to everyone here in the south using words like Hon, Darlin, Sugar like they had known me all my life. I had no idea what she was talking about then but I now know she was going to part my lower lips and shove a tube up me so far I could not help but pee! Actually, I could not stop peeing! It felt like I was going all the time. Little did I know, that was the last time I’d feel myself having bladder control for a very long time! I would later find out my spinal cord had been bruised and swelling could cause loss of sensation below the injury site.
Finally, a doctor came back in and said I had a broken lower back and a broken neck. He didn’t say that the first time but he repeated it in terms that sunk in. My worst fear was I was going to be paralyzed for life!
"You are a very lucky young lady," said the doctor, "If your neck had moved too much in the accident you would have wound up like Christopher Reeve, a quad without the ability to breath on your own. You probably would have died in your car."
I was so frightened at that point that I did not know what to do or say, it just came out, "OH MY GOD! I’m going to be in a wheelchair!"
"Maybe for a while, maybe not at all. If you are it will only be until the fractures stabilize. The one in your neck is a type II odontoid fracture. We’ll use a halo for that. Your back is broken just below your rib cage," said the doctor, "There is a hematoma, a bruise. It is pushing against your spine which is why you are feeling the tingling in your legs and you can’t move them as you wish. There is a good chance that will go away in the next few days or weeks. It may swell and cause some more paralysis for a while but it should be temporary."
"Has anyone called my family?" I asked, worried that I would die alone, far from family, in the hospital.
"We have contacted your sister," said a nurse I could not see, "She said to tell you she is flying in tomorrow to see you. She said she would contact everyone else for you. Do you have any other family or friends locally you’d like us to try to contact?"
I tried to shake my head but that didn’t work and I started to cry, "No," because I wasn’t that close to anyone here yet and I didn’t want anyone to see me in this condition.
They finally gave me something for the pain and it did help but I could still feel the tingling in my legs and the fire in the back of my neck. It was just a lower level and I could almost ignore it for short periods of time.
My eyes were closed when someone came in and started to touch me, "Ma’am, I’m going to measure you for your halo."
My first thoughts were I was dead and I was becoming an angel. I had no idea what he was talking about but he did not wait for me to acknowledge him. He set about measuring my head and sliding a tape measure under me and taking a measurement around my body. As quickly as he came, he was gone.
After that, maybe 30 minutes later, a dour looking man set about working on me. The pain killers make all this a bit fuzzy but I remember a lot of it, mostly the pain. He didn’t introduce himself nor speak to me directly for several minutes. When he did it was to announce I was going to feel a stick and then a burn. Nice man? I don’t think so. I could not see what he was doing but he did something that made the center of my forehead hurt like hell, as if it was being squeezed. So did the back corners of my head above my ears.
Still unable to see what he was doing, he took something and threaded it into something just above my line of vision. He had a screwdriver or something in his hand and he began twisting something above my head. All at once I felt immense pressure every where in my head. If I thought I was in a vice before, I felt like it was being squeezed twice as hard now. I think I moaned in pain. I could feel something warm running down the back of my head and down my temples.
All of a sudden, the most horrible sounding and feeling noise echoed through my skull. It was bone jarring snap. I now know it was the torque wrench hitting eight pounds as the pins sunk into my skull. I decided I did not like this man at all.
I would not learn what had been done to me just yet. It was nearly two hours later before I first saw my new image for the first time and it was a shocker. But the pain and torture wasn’t over yet. Next, three people log rolled me onto my side and something was slid under me. I was rolled back onto it and something was placed on my chest. My body was squeezed like someone was making an Anise sandwich. It was suddenly harder to breath.
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2 Comments
2 On 23 February, 2009, Bo Tox said:
Thanks. It is a painful process having a broken neck and writing about it helps. Not all of it is reality but the halo is certainly real enough.
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1 On 23 February, 2009, Chloe said:
You have my attention. It keeps getting more and more exciting :)