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A little accident

By Keith Jenkins
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You might have noticed (someone? anyone?…Haha!) that I haven’t posted anything in the past month. The reason I’ve been keeping low is because of a bicycle accident I got into on April 1st (yep, that was a lousy joke!). Here’s the story:

The ‘little accident’

At ER in the hospital – pulling a ‘sad’ face.

I was on my way back from a friend’s birthday party when I got into my first bike accident in Amsterdam. A police van swerved into my path and the cyclist in front of me braked. My front wheel caught his bike and I quite literally flew off my bike. I landed on the road on my left arm/shoulder. Two girls who were standing on the pavement rushed to me and as it turned out, they were med students! They were brilliant in helping me off the road, speaking so calmly to me and calling an ambulance. I was pretty much in shock at this point and the pain was excruciating.
The ambulance arrived and getting me into the vehicle was a nightmare. I almost passed out from the pain but the fun soon began! I was given a ketamine sedative which calmed me down but I soon started hallucinating! Images that reminded me of The Matrix and Alice in Wonderland flooded my brain! Imagine you’re zooming through a spinning kaleidscope and you’ll get an idea. That sure was an… erm… ‘otherworldly’ trip!

I arrived at the hospital (still wildly hallucinating) and tests revealed that my left shoulder was dislocated. Nothing broken. Phew!! The nurse expertly massaged my arm back into place and I slept as the ketamine wore off. When I awoke, I was amazed by how crystal clear everything looked – it was like watching life pass in HD! – and I felt incredibly chirpy! Haha!

At the time, I had the impression that a dislocated shoulder was pretty benign. Considering the nasty fall, the damage could’ve been much worse. Besides, images of tough guys in the movies simply banging their dislocated shoulders back into place against a wall were somehow reassuring. I had no idea what was in store for me…

Five odd weeks later, I still can’t lift my left arm to my shoulder level and I haven’t had a single night of good sleep due to the pain. What I initially thought was a benign accident has had a pretty massive impact on my day-to-day activities where even doing something as simple as putting on my clothes is a challenge. I’ve drastically reduced my working hours to rest my shoulder. Physiotherapy and painkillers are helping but the healing process is proving to be long and slow – as the doctor says, it takes quite a bit longer for people over forty. Gee, thanks!

Anyway, I thought I’d let you know in case you were starting to miss me. ๐Ÿ™‚

Despite the accident, I’ve still been travelling, to Spain and South Africa in the past month and more trips are just around the corner. I’ll publish my posts about these trips when my shoulder feels better, and in the meantime, you’ll find me on my social media channels: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

A word of thanks

A big thank you goes to the two girls who helped me, the medics who were terrific, and my family who’s been amazing! THANK YOU!!! And I’m also thankful for that new trippy experience! What a ride! Haha!

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