My Wednesday morning was off to a great start. The weather at the start of my 7 mile run was the perfect temperature and I felt strong running up the gnarly 520 hill. I turned around at the midway point and started climbing another gradual hill that would take me home. I was attacking that hill and then suddenly, I was face down on the sidewalk. It happened so fast that I didn’t have time to brace myself with my wrists and my face took the full force of the fall. In the second or two it took me to fall, I thought two thoughts: “Please don’t let any running body parts break” and “This is going to be a little embarrassing. This sucks.” When I sat up and touched my face, I realized blood was pouring out of my mouth and since I was in shock, I had no idea if I had broken my nose, my jaw or cut through my lip. I sat on the ground and realized I wasn’t in such bad shape, except my lip and the inner part of my mouth was all cut up. It was a busy intersection but no one stopped their car to see if I was ok. If a fellow runner had been around, I’m sure he/she would’ve asked if I was ok since runners are generally awesome people.
Luckily, this incident happened close to an ER so I walked myself down the sidewalk and into the ER and thankfully there wasn’t a wait. I guess there aren’t a lot of emergencies at 7:30 AM on a weekday? On the way up to the ER, I started feeling faint and nauseous, which is strange since the sight of blood doesn’t gross me out. While I was lying on the bed, I called my husband and played on Twitter since I didn’t really have anything else to do. I sat down and a very sweet nurse took care of me and up my wounds after the doctor decided that I needed stitches. He said I was lucky that the inside of my mouth acted as a shock absorber since nastier things would’ve happened had my teeth hit the sidewalk directly. My two front teeth were pretty loose and he recommended that I see a dentist after leaving the ER. My nose also started turning a little black and it’s a bit sore but not broken. After receiving some stitches, I headed over to the dentist who told me that one of my teeth has an internal fracture and that the nerves could potentially die (which = root canal). I was also given specific instructions to not bite into anything, including a banana for the next few months. Sidenote: Someone brought cupcakes to work yesterday. Try eating a cupcake without using your front teeth. I can assure you that it results in more cupcake frosting on your face than in your mouth. After the dentist, my husband drove me over to the pharmacy where I picked up my prescription for antibiotics to prevent infection inside my mouth. After that, it was time to get a smoothie at Jamba Juice.
Since I was a little slow to respond and a bit dizzy, my husband insisted that I go to work with him so that he could keep an eye on me. Thank goodness he has a couch since I spent most of the afternoon alternating between work email and napping. Smacking your face on the ground is very tiring.
It’s been a couple of days since my fall and my mouth is starting to heal, although my teeth still really hurt. Hopefully the lip swelling will go down soon since I keep drooling soup and oatmeal all over my face and I would like to eat food again. For those of you who are curious, I’ve included a couple of photos below. Don’t scroll down if bloody mouth pictures bother you.
A huge thank you to the hospital staff at Evergreen Hospital for being so caring. And thank you Twitter friends for posting your get well wishes!
Rebecca on the Run 