ferrousland.com - true stories
killing my car
i was on the way home from a gig one night back in march 1996 (i used to sing for a living) & i was pretty tired. it was about quarter to five in the morning & it had been a long day & night with a long drive back from the gold coast (where the gig was) to brisbane.
i'd driven most of the way back to my parents' place, where i was living at the time. it was a pretty cold night so i had the car windows rolled up & the heater on. it was very comfortable. too comfortable as it turns out. about 1km (maybe less) from mum & dad's place, the last thing i recall thinking was that i should probably turn off the heater & roll the windows down ..
the next thing i remember is a big bang. that pretty much woke me up. my first thought was, "great. i've finally done it. i've fallen asleep at the wheel & i've hit something." so i figured i'd better get out of the car & find some help.
i unclipped my seat belt & tried the door handle, but it wouldn't open. i tried again & then once more while banging my hip against it & that finally made it open. i got out & my head must have hurt because i brought my hand to the side of my forehead & felt a huge lump. it was all soft & must have been full of liquid or something.
i kind of walked/stumbled blindly up the nearest driveway. i discovered it was a tree that i'd hit & it was right outside these people's house, whoever they were. some people had come out of the house & met me halfway up the driveway. apparently it was pretty loud & woke up quite a few people in the street. they led me into their house & sat me down on a chair in an uncarpeted room. as silly as it is, i distinctly remember being rather peeved & thinking "typical! here i am, just crashed my car & all they can think about is making sure i don't bleed on their carpets." hehe, funny things you think at times like these. they had a fourteen year old son (or around that age) who was poking his face around my field of vision having a gawk. i was thinking "yeah, go on, have a good look why don't you!"
someone asked me if there was somebody they could call so i gave them my mum & dad's phone number. in the state i was in (very much in shock, but funnily enough i didn't cry) i was surprised i could even think of it. that's pretty much the last thing i remember until i was at the hospital.
later on, i could kind of recall snippets of being in the car with mum & dad as they drove me to the hospital, asking repeatedly "where's my bag?" & "where are my glasses? what happened to my glasses?" dad told me he was pretty worried at that stage because repeating yourself can be a sign of brain damage & i did have a pretty huge lump on my head.
so we were at the hospital & i had to undress to put a gown on. i was pretty unstable on my feet & one of my knees was really sore. i finally got my clothes off & sat on the bed in the casualty ward while a nurse took my pulse etc. by this time i was feeling a little more aware of myself, so i talked to her as i calmly inspected my injuries. i think that she was surprised that i wasn't crying or anything but instead that i was more interested in what i'd hurt & how i'd hurt it.
after a while they took me into another room to get some x-rays. i had to take my bra off from under the gown (because of the metal underwire), but my right forefinger & thumb were very sore & stiff so despite my embarrassment, i had to ask the x-ray guy to unhook it for me. shame!
by the time i got back to the casualty room i was busting for the loo, so a really nice nurse showed me the way. there was a big mirror in there & i decided it was time to inspect the damage. now, my bottom lip had been feeling rather dodgy so i knew there was something wrong there. i looked in the mirror & saw that my braces (i'd been wearing orthodontic braces for a few months) had torn right through my bottom lip. they'd made a real mess of it. i probably could have stuck my tongue through the hole if it wasn't such a gross thing to do. i opened my mouth as much as i could & found that two of the brackets on my top teeth had been knocked off & were only held on the wire by the rubber bands. on closer inspection i could see bits of flesh from the inside of my top lip stuck in them. that was pretty gross.
the big lump on my head had started to turn purple & there was a small scrape mark near my hair line. near the roots the hair had gone all crinkly like in the 80's when girls crimped their hair. that was weird.
all in all, i looked like frankenstein's bride. very attractive .. not!
so finally (it must have been about two hours later i reckon), a guy came in to stitch up my bottom lip. they'd called a plastic surgeon in on a saturday morning. the lady doctor that was looking after me said that she could have stitched it up herself but it was pretty much a big mess so she figured that since i was a) young, b) a girl, & c) a singer, i probably didn't want a huge ugly scar on my bottom lip, so she called the plastic surgeon.
he ended up putting about fifteen to twenty stitches total on the inside & outside of my bottom lip & the inside of my top lip. meanwhile, as he was stitching me up i had about two other doctors & a few nurses all standing around watching as he explained how this type of knot was better than that type of knot because it made the skin heal up flat etc, etc. "very exciting," i was thinking, "can i just get out of here now?" there was one really nice nurse though who stood at the end of the bed & put her hand on my shin to let me know she was there & just kept patting my leg to make me feel better. i'll always remember her. i should have sent her a card to say thank you, but i never did & i regret it. i hope she knows what a good job she did.
dad had left earlier (i think he was arranging the tow truck for my car), so when i was eventually allowed to go, mum & i got a taxi home. i spent most of the remainder of the day resting in bed while my sweet sister & brother-in-law went to the wrecker's & saved all my personal belongings from my poor little car. they even got the floor mats for me .. how nice was that!?!
before i could totally relax though, we had to get to my dentist so he could remove the top wire of my braces, which had moved forward a bit & was sticking into my top lip & was causing a small amount of discomfort. we couldn't get an appointment until about 11:30am so the initial shock & numbness from the anaesthetic had worn off & i was in a lot of pain. he sat me down & left some numbing stuff on cotton buds sticking out of my mouth for a while .. must have looked pretty funny.
eventually he got some pliers to slide the wire out of the braces & as he was coming near me with them i couldn't help but push backwards into the chair to get away from him because it was hurting so much & i just didn't want any more pain. he was as gentle as could be (he's a good dentist - andrew nixon, nice guy - hello to you if you ever read this!) but by the time he was all done & we could go home i was shaking from the pain. i guess it was all a bit much. i hadn't slept in over twenty-four hours .. unless you count the short nap that i had just before hitting the tree. 
the next day, mum had bought a box of chocolates for the people whose tree i'd crashed into to say thank you for bringing me into their house etc. she asked if i wanted to come along so i figured it'd be nice to do so. i hadn't been able to eat a lot since the accident because of my bottom lip being so messed up, so i was feeling a bit dodgy in the stomach. i thought perhaps i was hungry so i ate some strained apple (heinz strained apple, the baby food! we used to use that for apple sauce with roast pork & to snack on because it's yummy). i could only eat soft food & had only managed to eat some mashed potato before that.
turns out that my dodgy belly wasn't hunger .. when we reached the people's house (only about a minute away), i was feeling really sick. mum knocked on the door & a lady answered. by now, i knew that i was going to vomit, all i had to do was find the venue. i looked past the lady inside her house. i looked back at the bushes in the garden behind me. inside the house. back at the bushes. the house. the bushes .. i wondered if it would be more rude to ask if i could use her bathroom or to just turn around & heave into her garden.
i figured asking might be nicer, so with just enough breath left to kind of gasp "excuse me, i feel a bit sick (major understatement!!!) do you mind if i use your bathroom?" she lead me to her bathroom (me barely holding on) & i very gracefully hurled into her toilet, with not even enough time to close the door!
meantime, the same fourteen year old boy was hanging around watching part two of the wonderful story to tell all his mates at school on monday. the nice lady asked if i'd like a drink of water so of course i said, "yes, please." she went away to the kitchen & came back with the glass of water & gave it to me, but in the trip from the kitchen back to the bathroom a moth had managed to fly into it! so to disgrace myself even further (i seemed to be getting pretty good at it by now) i had to hand it back & say as nicely as i could "i'm sorry, but there's a moth in it."
i have no idea what everyone else must have been thinking by this stage, but i was so embarrassed! we went back home after that. i guess they accepted the box of chocolates. i really don't remember any of the rest of the visit, i must have blocked it out of my memory!
about a week later, we drove past their house & saw a "for sale" sign. my brother-in-law said that they were moving because they were afraid i was going to come back again .. 
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