the bruise blog

so.... i fell. big time. here is the story. sorry about the links, i didnt feel like embedding.

i rode the bus from tulsa to arizona. the night before we were to pick up the rest of the crew and band (yes, crew come first in my mind) we stopped at a truck wash to have the bus cleaned. that way it would look all nice for everyone on the first day. after we went thru the wash the bus driver yelled for me "hey muff, was this trailer light always on?". i replied that i didnt think it had been and i started to investigate. this is where the problem started.

the light in question is on the very top rear of the trailer. surely i had to get on the trailer to reach this light. in order to do that i had to use the spare tire on the front of the trailer as a makeshift ladder. i pushed myself up and walked across the top towards the light on the rear. there was no switch. oh well. i started the climb back down. this is where the problem escalated. i didnt think about the fact that we had just come out of a truck wash. the whole trailer was wet... including the rubber tire and my rubber soled shoes. as my weight came down on the tire, it didnt grip. i just kept accelerating. oh crap, sudden stop. all of my 185lbs came to a grinding halt via my outer left thigh hitting a metal post on the trailer. ouch.

so thats how it happened. here are some pictures of the injury instantly and then some updates from a few days following.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryandhargrave/TheBruise

there are a couple of other pictures in there. one showing that the bruise ended up all the way down my leg to my ankles. also one showing some blood that is explained in the next paragraph.

So the bruise didnt scare me. It was the build up of fluids. After a few days I noticed a sac of blood in my leg. it would move when i rolled over, i could move it around and jiggle it. that scared me. i went to an urgent care and the dr said it would all just heal on its own. i wanted more. i wanted something for my money. i made them suck some of the blood out. we filmed it. here is some video of the blood bag and removal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gyB2y4LXA0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxPGHxQENIw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28l8lO8WOFo


later that night the blood bag was back in full effect. almost two weeks later it is still around. the bruise is faded (though my entire leg is still sore) but the bag still stays. i am picking off scabs here and there and cussing every time i have to bend over or walk too far, but i am getting thru. hopefully it wont last much longer.

the sad part.... i found out later that the light could have been turned off had i unlocked the trailer and hit a switch. sometimes we are just stupid.