This is a road that I visit almost everyday - doing couple of rounds of cycling after my morning exercise. Never did I imagine in my wildest thoughts that this would make me realize the value of life, the value of being able to breath - the greatest gift from the divine. And it was all set by destiny if you believe. We had a family function to attend for which we planned to leave by 11 am. For that sake in the previous night, I decided not to go for exercise in the morning, but then I got up quite early. As I was getting bored, I told my wife to get ready and went for light walk - unlike the heavy exercise I do everyday for one and half hour. Usually I do not use headphones while running, but since that day I thought I would just walk around the apartment, let me put the headphone and enjoy some music. And as I was getting out of the door, she asked me if I can bring some onions. If you are following my blogs then you must be knowing that we had two sad demises in our family recently. So for almost 3-4 weeks, we were not using onions. I said, I will go for cycling then and get onions while coming back. You can imagine, how destiny was calling me.
I was not going for exercise since my last post - as I was on pain killers for that tooth extraction. So did some light walk for around half an hour around our building, enjoying some loud music. I am a big fan of on ear clip type headphones and had got a Panasonic RP-HZ47-K clip headphone sometimes back, and wearing that. Then I went on cycling on this road this is just in front of our apartment. Probably I could have just gone for the onions but I thought, I would go for my regular two rounds around this inclined road and then come back. The inclination is difficult but then coming back is like relaxing and I was coming down, for a moment I felt, a bike is coming behind me and will hit me when I turn right to take the second round. As I was listing to loud music, I thought, I should look back and see and then indicate by hand that I am about to turn right. That was the moment - I looked back, had the cycle controlled in my left hand and showed the right hand to him indicating that I am going to turn. Driving is always a relative action and for a moment I felt, I cannot turn without getting hit by him, so I applied the brake. But then I lost control and what happened next was beyond my imagination. The cycle must be around the speed range of 20 km, the cycle skidded , with the handle turning in some opposite direction. Within fraction of seconds it dragged me towards this fence and I was thrown out of the cycle and fell on that fence, on my left rib cage. For a moment I felt death - felt like my heart was burst from inside and was unable to breath and will die in minutes. There were lot of trees on this place and they were being cut by people - many people ran coming to me and tried to lift me but I was unconscious for almost 2 minutes - my body being very stiff. When I gained sense, I felt two people robbing my back and two more trying to lift me. I was not able to breath normal and they lifted me and made me sit on that fence. The headphone was lying somewhere, and one person was holding that to give me. I was not able to talk and they were asking me who to call so that they can take me to hospital. I indicated them to leave me for some time and sat for 20 minutes there. The cycle handle had turned three rounds and someone fixed that to some extent. And all of them were trying to console me asking if I can call someone or they would take me to hospital.
After sitting for some time, I called my son who ran to me immediately. With his help, I was able to walk to home, with much difficulty. My wife called my doctor friend and he advised to apply ice as much as possible. The next one hour was family effort - the kids went and got ice, ice packs from every other door and my wife applied them for more than a hour. It gave me a lot of relief and then she went and got medicines from the store - high powered pain killers being the major of them. We were not in a position to go for the function at all, but then we did not want to give them this bad news. For the entire day, I was not able to sleep, and could feel the pinch with every body movement. My friend advised to do a X-ray once I am able to go to hospital as it was a critical area. Next day I was feeling a little better after taking 3 pain killers, but then went for the x-ray the next day.
My friend called me many times to inquire and said things must be fine, as I was in a position to tolerate the pain. Had anything broken, I could not have stayed at home. The reports confirmed that.
The rib cage pain is going to be there for long time - I can feel every time I sleep or get up. As I felt better, I was analyzing my fault so that I can never do it again in my entire life. Wearing that headphone and listening to music was the biggest mistake - I never did that. But the first time mistake did make me realize the value of life - looking at death so close. And I am very thankful to God for just making me realize - things could have been worst, had I fallen on my head or chest. It could have been a fatal mistake. May be the destiny wanted to just remind me the value of being able to breath and be grateful for what the God has given us and enjoy every moment of it. And most importantly you feel the value of family in these moments - to stand strong together in these moments and take care.
Before wrapping this I want to share the trick that I learned today from my son. I was wondering how to take a nice picture of the X-ray and he advised me to open a paint window in the laptop with white screen, make it full screen by pressing F11. And then make it flat and keep the Xray - just like a screen that is used in hospitals to see the X-ray. Time has come to learn from them. Also give them our hand - he now lifts me from bed and holds me when I go to sleep.
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