7 stitches in time..

3 days ago, if you had asked me when I have fainted in my life, you would have heard an emphatic "never" as an answer. Sigh, things have to change, right? My first faint happened on 10th Feb night at around 7:30 PM and how!

You know I was ill. Sri kept insisting on going to the doctor, but I had somehow put it off thinking that things will get better the next day. Moreover the plain fact was that I just was too sick of even thinking of getting up and getting out in the cold weather. Well, things weren't looking better at all, so on that fateful Wednesday evening, we headed to an Urgent Treatment center nearby to get me checked up. The checking in stuff was a bit slow for an "urgent" treatment center, but somehow got through that and soon was in the examination room. Since I was a bit weak and my brain wasn't running to its optimum speed, I had asked Sri to be with me when the doctor asked me questions, so in turn even Snugli was there for the incident. I told the doctor about the tablets I was taking and that I wasn't able to eat at all - as soon as I took a few bites I would feel full and nauseous.

They found that my blood pressure was a bit low and said that I was dehydrated. The doctor said that they would give me an injection for the nausea and hence I should atleast be able to eat/drink a little bit better. The nurse came in with the injection and here the story has to be split to give different perspectives :-p.

Deepthi's story:

The nurse told me that there would be a burning sensation when the shot would be given, so I expected that. But not the immediate reeling of my head. Suddenly I was in this calm place with some nice music playing - like this nice dream that people are trying to wake you up from and you don't want to get up. When I did come to, there was something cold being pressed to my forehead and my forehead as well as upper lip were paining like crazy. For a few moments I didn't even realize that I was lying on the ground, I was sitting on the examination chair when I was given the shot and hence thought that I was lying on that.

Sri's/the nurse's story:

The nurse gave the shot, put a bandage on (I don't remember getting the band-aid either) and turned to throw the injection to the dustbin. The next thing they know, I was falling to the floor directly on my face (make that forehead and upper lip, I don't know how my nose escaped hitting the ground) and there was nothing anybody could do about it. They still don't know whether I hit my forehead on the floor or a chair leg, but immediately the doctor was called and they turned me over to my back. I had blood flowing from my forehead and upper lip and obviously bad cuts both places and they started putting cold compresses for both.

Well, fun times eh? They got me up to the examination chair where the doctor determined that the cut on the forehead was deep and she didn't know whether she could stitch it up without scarring it up. Plus she wanted a CAT scan done so we had to go to the emergency room (ER) of a hospital for that. By this time, my brain was back to its optimum function and I said that I would get the stitches as well as the scan at the hospital (well, there is this old story, where I got stitches from a general physician and there's a blatant scar on my leg to this day and I certainly didn't want a repeat of that on my forehead with this general physician :-p. The story I'll talk about some other time). And so we got checked out and Sri took me to yet another hospital which we hadn't yet explored here in Lexington and after initial formalities, they soon got me on a bed and answering questions.

They did a pregnancy test since there would be lots of radiation in the CAT scan and then the scan itself on the head and the neck (cannot believe I am learning the full form of CAT - Computerized Axial Tomography, today!). Meanwhile Sri took Snugli to one of his colleague's house for dinner. By the time he got back, the CAT results were up - thankfully everything was okay with my head and neck and the surgeon was about to stitch up my forehead. One thing I like about doctors here, they tell you everything :-D. Its like a constant commentary on whats going on. He told me how he's using small sutures so that the scar would not be prominent and that my upper lip cut would not require any. And so I got 7 stitches on my forehead and a glue to support my upper lip. I'm supposed to go back for stitch removal after another 2 days. The surgeon kept saying how he was sorry that I was having a bad day and I remember thinking "you don't know the half of it" :-D.

So you can see, all has been well with my household the previous few days :-p. Its still not the end of the story, but an ongoing saga, so I can't say these are the learnings from the thing or whatever, but sort of ongoing observations:

1) I managed to successfully scar another person for life. Darsh keeps teasing me that he was scarred for life when he saw the gory sight of some white stuff and blood in my chipped off leg (in the incident mentioned above) and now its the turn of Snugli. The poor thing was a witness to the entire fall and the gory sight of the gaping hole in my head and was saying "Amma Amma" when I came to. Maybe she and Darsh can compare stories and notes later on how they were impacted, hehehehe :-D. Seriously speaking, I don't think she even remembers it now :-).

2) No matter how bad a situation is, I have realized that it can never get to my sense of humour :-D. We went to the second hospital and the surgeon actually asked me "Do you know where you are?" and I laughed out loud. Despite the pain, the trauma, the everything!! I was reminded of the very filmy "Mein kaun huun?", "Mein kahaan huun?" etc, hehehee.

3) I never knew what fainting was about. Now that I know, it feels strange to miss out on a few seconds of your own life (a few seconds was all it took) and to rely on others to find out what happened to you. I had this classmate who'd faint all the time and I remember scorning at her for being so weak. Now I can sympathize more and understand the helplessness of it all.

4) Whenever something bad happens, we think why? I find myself wondering what I did to deserve this. I keep replaying incidents from my India trip and thinking that maybe I behaved badly with people and this is the reward. Yeah, thats the depression speaking. But then no matter how I behaved, this is me. This is the person I am. This is what you get. This is not an epiphany. I'm not going to become a saint/sorceror just because this happened. And so I convince myself that this has nothing to do with what I did in the past. Heck, God has better things to do, right? But then I regress and get right back to it :(.

5) Another reality check has been about looks. I always thought I wasn't too obsessed with my looks (I am a little bit obsessed, but who isn't?), but this incident has sorta brought me down to earth. Right now, I have a hugggge gash on my upper forehead and the entire forehead area is swollen. Plus a scar on my upper lip + entire upper lip swollen. I look like a version of Rohini Hattangadi in that weird makeup applied by Sridevi in the movie Chaalbaaz, hehehee (here's the scene on youtube). Yup, I have a sense of humour about it, but my self esteem has taken a beating. I keep looking at Sri's eyes to find out whether he looks at me differently. Pathetic, I know. He doesn't, but the doubts don't stop. Atleast with Snugli I know for sure, the child doesn't know the meaning of pretense yet. I wonder whether I'll ever look like myself again. Or is this the new me? :(((. I am even afraid to say "it can only get better from now on", thats what I thought before I went to the treatment center :(.

I am grateful, believe me, that I didn't hurt my eyes or nose or teeth or fracture the skull. I'm only upset that this has overshadowed the good times I had in the India trip and the stuff I had planned for this month. But I'll survive :).

Anyhow, they say a stitch in time saves nine, so 7 stitches in time? Saved me from looking like a cyborg with a large hole on its forehead :-D. Although, that would have been really cool in an alternate world :-D.