vivacious_vixen

The one sentence I truly never want to hear again would be "Phil's been in an accident." Phil is my husband and today was the second time I heard that sentence been said to me down the phone line.

The first time, 18 months ago, Phil was out motor bike riding in the forest about 30kms out of town, I was sitting outside chatting to my sister on the phone when my mobile rang, it was my brother-in-law. The phone call went something like this:
brother-in-law: "Phil's been in an accident"
Silence
me: "OMG what's happened, is he alright"
brother-in-law: "he's broken his leg, the ambulance is on its way, they will be taking him to the hospital at Woden"
me: "I'll meet you there"
We both hung up, my sister was still on the home phone, I picked it up and burst into tears, that sentence is one that strikes fear into my heart.

Cause the ambulance couldn't go bush i.e. 4wd territory my brother-in-law had driven his bike back into the nearest little town and found some people with a 4wd to go and get my husband. They loaded him into the tray on the back and got him back to the tar road, my husband later told me this was the most excruciating part of the whole experience, he said he could feel the bone scraping on itself, eww.

How did he break his leg? He was doing this ridiculous jump and he approached way to fast, went about 10-15 meters in the air realised that he wasn't going to be able to land it so he pushed the bike away from him and he landed on his feet with his right leg snapping half way up the shin.

So I got to the hospital, phil and the ambulance didn't arrive for another hour. They took him for x-rays and found that both the bones in the shin area were smashed. So he had to wait three days for an operation to put a titanium rod up through the middle of the bone from the ankle to the knee. He was in surgery for eight hours but everything went fine. Anyway it was a long recovery but its all good now.

At the time my husband was working as a contractor and only got paid for the hours he worked so we had to sell his dirt bike to help pay the bills etc. The ambulance ride came in at just over $400.

And so today Phil went off for his usual morning surf along with his brother, around 11:30 I got a phone call from my sister-in-law, it went something like this:

sister-in-law: "Phil's been in an accident"
me: "what. Is he ok, what happened?"
sister-in-law: "he cut his leg open, he's ok, he's been taken to Tweed Heads hospital. Wayne's (the brother-in-law) on his way to the hospital now and asked me to call you and let you know whats happened."
me: "Alright, I'll leave now, thanks Rach"
And we both hang up.

So now I'm thinking how did he get to the hospital if Wayne is on his way, what happened, how did he cut his leg open and on what, how the hell am I going to find the Tweed Heads hospital etc.

So when I get there Phil tells me that he caught a big wave and came off his board, whilst being tossed around under the water his board hit him in the leg (the fins underneath). When he came up he thought it wasn't anything serious maybe just a bruise. He looked down and a sausage of white/yellow fat was hanging out of a deep gash in his leg, eww.
So we waited for two hours, finally the doctor came in, he removed the bandage that the lifesaver had put on him at the beach, omg it was so gross, it was about 2cms deep, 1 cm wide and about 7cms long with a 1cm round sausage of fat hanging out of it.
Anyway I watched as they cleaned it out (very painful for my poor baby) they cut the sausage of fat off, then injected stuff to deaden the area. Then he started to stitch it up with this thing that looked very similar to a fishing hook, now I've never thought of myself as the queasy type and I didn't really think that this scene was grossing me out or anything but all of a sudden the room started to go black from the edges of my vision, I thought I was going to vomit, I licked my lips and it tasted salty, thankfully there was a chair behind me, I slumped into it and just looked at the ground, my arms and legs started prickling all over and I broke out in a massive sweat all over my face, arms, hands and legs. It was the worst feeling, to not be in control of my body. I needed to get out of that room but I knew I couldn't move from that chair.
My husband looked over at me and gave me his hand, he later said that all the colour had drained from my face and body and I looked like I was going to pass out. It was strange that he had to comfort me when he was the one in pain.

Anyway he's home safe now and he wont be able to surf for a little while till it heals. I guess there is always the chance that I will hear that sentence again when my husband has a deep seeded need to do dangerous things, I think he's an adrenaline junky.

I bloody hope for both our sakes he will be safe from now on.