Oct 29,2017 Late arrival and a little incident!

Oct 29, 2017

We arrived about 1/2 late for our luncheon. Chris and I were so grateful for the understanding of everyone. It was so wonderful to  meet everyone: Gillian McRobie, Lynette Gee, Claire Smith, Cathy Fernie, Gill Sidebottom, Jenny Boughton, Wanda Robins, Emine Wearie and Beatrice Marcu. We had such a great time forging new connections and solidifying old ones (from the Family Reunion in San Diego the year before!)

And a huge shout out to Beatrice for organizing everyone, and for  finding our lunch venue and making reservations. <3 It could not have been more perfect and Chris and I are completely and unabashedly in love with you all!!! Yaay!!!

We were staying in Soho so it was a lovely walk back to our digs. We picked up some groceries at a Whole Foods Restaurant and had a much needed solid nights sleep.

The next day we scheduled for site-seeing before our big day with Sophie at the Alternative Limb Project

We took a tour on a double decker

Rode the London Eye

Went to the Tower of London and had a fascinating tour, saw the Crown Jewels and were inspired and marvelled at the Beef Eaters who are entrusted with guarding all of it.

Took a boat ride down the Thames

We found amazing BLEing places to eat. Chris and I never had any problem finding the food we needed. Londons’ ethnic food restaurants are many and varied and offer so much variety! We just could not have been more happy with our good fortune in this city, where I had heard that it was hard to find good healthy food. Not so!! We felt so fortunate!!! Even the airport at Gatwick was brilliant!

What a fabulous City!

I am so in love with London!

Drum roll……..

This is where it got…….

Unexpected

Interesting

Who would have thought…….

  

We were returning in the evening on one of the last double deck tour bus runs of the day…

We disembarked…

Chris was in front of of me…

I had bags in one hand…

Not sure what happened…

I tripped…

I fell…

I couldn’t get my hands out in front of me to save or cushion my fall…

I did a massive face plant on the cobblestone street.

I heard a crushing sound…

I felt the pain…

For what felt like some moments I remained motionless…

I was afraid to move. 

I knew it was going to be bad. 

It hurt…
a lot….

I looked up from my position on the ground and thought I saw the rear wheel of the double decker in front of me…

of course at this point Chris was in motion…

I raised my face slightly from the pavement and I started crawling backwards…I think Chris was pulling me as well…blood was gushing everywhere it seemed at that point…though we realized later that there wasn’t a drop on any of the bags I had been carrying or on my shirt or coat…in true fashionista spirit…I had managed to keep the blood flow to my face and off of my clothing or my purchases!

We repositioned on a bench on the street…Chris ran into a pub where the Manager came out with a first aid kit…

I had stopped the bleeding by tilting my head back finally…everyone on scene was very attentive and caring…

My nose…

It was broken…

Everyone decided we should go to the Hospital…

A cab was hailed… the driver was so sweet and very concerned. He had some fresh organic apples from his garden that he kept offering me….

Lessons learned…always make sure you have Travel Insurance cause you just never know…

and

Always know what the local ER number is…it isn’t always 911 (and it isn’t in London)

it’s 999

and

always carry extra phone chargers! Both Chrises’ battery and mine were so low from using our map GPSs’s during the day that we really couldnt use our phones if we had needed to!

We had a bit of a wait at the ER and some frustrations with getting an ice pac…ahh yes…borrowing a charger as well… other than that they x-rayed me one too many times. Those of you who know me know I have mighty aversion to excessive medical intervention , most especially X-rays.

I saw a very nice Dr. who proclaimed my nose was broken and I might have a concussion. He said there wasn’t much to do about it other than treat me for pain and ice the injury to reduce the swelling. He said I could have my Dr look at my nose when I was back in Vancouver. I was discharged from the Hospital. 

Not one charge for any of the procedures or the MD consult. We called another taxi and shared our story with that driver. He was so nice that when we reached our destination he offered to let us sit in the drivers seat of his Black Iconic London Cab and have our pictures taken. 

We still needed to eat so we found a little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant in Soho near our airbnb and had some delicious food. Again! We are so lucky!

We returned to our airbnb and I emailed Sophie to let her know I had a slight accident and to not be shocked when she saw me the next day. Over the course of the next three days the bruising got progressively worse. But it was really quite manageable

Chris was such a rockstar of care and support for me thru all of this. Thank you Chris for taking such good care of me. <3 I don’ t know what I would have done without you there running interference and just plain managing the situation.