horrible journey back home

thank you to all of you who have expressed concern over my accident, i'm am very touched and grateful for all your prayers. I believe that the Lord has really blessed me in that i didn't suffer permanent injuries and that after everything, i am still alive and healthy. it's been a VERY MEMORABLE and almost out-of-the-world experience for me, i am glad to be back home in Singapore, where all of my friends and family are, nothing is sweeter than home, and i can't wait to recover fully again so i can hang out with you guys once again :)

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My tiny lil' abode in Bishop Drive, Ca

It's been about 5 days since i got back from Canada, the journey back was nothing short of an ADVENTURE...from hell.... I thought the car accident was the end of my very "exciting" trip but it turns out the flight back proved to be equally "sensational (for lack of a better word)". Here's the whole story...After 2 weeks of recuperation in my cosy lil' apartment in Bishop Drive, i headed back to Singapore via Toronto. The initial flight plan was meant to be like this:


Fredericton > Montreal > Toronto (stay 2days 1 night) > Chicago > Tokyo > Singapore

But because of many, many absurd events, my journey back turned out like that:

Fredericton > Montreal > Toronto ( 2 days 1 night) > Grand Rapids > Chicago (1night) > Seattle > Tokyo > Singapore (a day later than expected and at a crazy 2+am in the wee hours of the morning!! not including 1 lost luggage!!!!!)

WHY u ask??!! Because UNITED AIRLINES sucks(x1000000), it's the crappiest airlines i've taken in my entire 20 years of life!! First off, after my stay in toronto (which i will blog about another time becorz i m so freaking pissed off right now), I headed down to chicago. But because of bad weather conditions, they had to stop over at Grand Rapids for a bloody 2++ hours to wait for conditions to settle down in chicago. Many people decided to leave the plane at Grand Rapids and drive down to Chicago instead. A lucky ass was actually intending to head to Grand Rapids so when the plane stopped over at GR, he was elated of course.

After 10+ people decided to abandon the plane, the pilot made an announcement, "Thank you for all those who have decided not to abandon us, we trust you that you have made the correct choice of staying with us. We will be taking off soon and we trust to bring you to Chicago much earlier than those who have already left us. The flight down to Chicago is app. 20mins but the drive down to Chicago is 3 hrs, so u can do the calculations." And so we all waited...and waited...and finally the plane was ready to take off again...and then my terrible nightmare began...

The air turbulence was so bad, i was practically grabbing onto the armrest 95% of the time and i held my breath 70% of the time, by the time i landed, i think i probably lost a few calories from sheer exhaustion. The plane shaked very violently in that 20 mins and for a split second, the plane fell and i felt my guts being pulled out of me (u know the feeling u get when u take roller coasters and when the ride suddenly takes a dive, u feel ur lungs and guts still up in the air...). People screamed and the air stewardess gasped when the plane suddenly took a dive. Someone vomitted too...

I thought i nearly died a second time...i shut my eyes tight and kept praying over and over again. It was almost a reenactment of my car accident, i was incredibly scared and with all my neck and body braces, i felt even more vulnerable. I mean...if we had to like rescue ourselves, maybe take a parachute and jump out of the plane, i'll be at a disadvantage right?? Who's gonna give way to some poor handicapped person in an astonaut looking suit in times of emergency??? Furthermore, my movements would be so restricted and i wouldn't be able to like fight my way through the panicked crowd and parachute out :S ...then again...do commercial airplanes even come equipped with parachutes in the first place???

By the time the plane landed, i couldn't suppress a tear and the exploding feeling of gratefulness and happiness at being on the ground once again. The pilot even announced as we started grabbing our luggages to exit the plane, " That was one of the worst short haul flights that i have ever encountered... Once again, i like to thank you for accompanying us on United Airlines and that you enjoy your stay in Chicago. And we hope you continue to choose United in your future travels."

..................whatever -_-" I was quite certain i wanted to take a ship back from chicago to Singapore at that point of time. I didn't care if i take a week to get back as long as i don't hafta board a plane EVER again.

And the next thing i knew, we'd missed the next flight back to tokyo! I didn't know whether it was bad luck or a blessing in disguise...My parents were upset of course, the airlines would not compensate us for the accomodation as they claimed it was due to weather conditions hence we were not entitled to compensation. Honestly, if you asked me, I guess i was pretty glad i didn't hafta take another plane ride that soon. So we booked a hotel and stayed in Chicago for a night (there are a lot of blacks there by the way and its much much warmer than Canada)

The next day, we boarded the supposedly non-stop flight from Chicago to Tokyo. And then, what did we expect from United?? Nothing is EVER smooth going with UNITED, NOTHING. They just had to drop something on us, they couldn't just leave us alone and bring us back to Singapore. They had to leave a lasting impression on us...well, i guess they made their point.

They told us that there would be a stop over in Seattle and an extra 2 hour delay because...whaddaya know...they didn't have enough bloody pilots!!!!!! *faints* ARRGGGHH!!! Harlowz??!! They think i shooting drama show izzit??!! Which of you have actually encountered such a stupid reason before??!!! Apparently, the pilot decided to take emergency leave and for flights that are more than 12hrs, there needs to be at least 2 replacement pilots so right now, we were short of 1!! Wth. wth!

And that's not the rest of it, no no, of course not...then it wouldn't be so eventful, now would it?

To top everything off, there was a emergency medical situation onboard and they needed medical assistance. SOoo when they got to Seattle, they not only had to recrew, they had to get medical assistance, and so MORE time was wasted. And the air stewardess then informed us that we might have to stay in tokyo for another day(!!!) because we will miss our next flight to Singapore! But this time we would be compensated.

Then it came to me...maybe God didn't want me to take such a long flight back, He wanted me to rest more, because my doctor actually instructed that i should not be seating up for more than 1 hr. Cause one time in Chicago is still understandable but another time in Tokyo?? :S Or maybe cause i couldn't travel the States due to my injury so this was part of God's plan to let me kind of travel to different cities in USA. Lolx.

In the end, we didn't hafta stay over in Tokyo for an extra day cause United delayed the proceeding flight to Singapore, and we managed to board it. Just when we thought our very eventful journey back was over, guess what??!!

United Airlines lost my bloody luggage containing half my wardrobe, my havainas slippers, my undergarments and etc.

The pilot who flew us from chicago to tokyo announced when we landed in tokyo that we must have had a long day and the trip wasn't a smooth one, well, for once they got that right! and for the millionth time that they bloody hell ask me to choose United for my future travels, i am soooo gona strangle the stupid pilot and gag his mouth. I took 3 freaking days to get from Canada back to Singapore, with a lost luggage summore (!!!), United can sooo freaking kiss my ass i'm not gona give them another penny. argh.

How's that for an adventure??

P.S They managed to retrieve my luggage in the end, and i might even get to claim money(about 1000?) from insurance for delayed baggage delivery, i guess that kinda compensates for everything, lolx.

Rare glimpse of an after accident shot of me with ugly looking neck brace, body brace is hidden under enormous UNB sweater, lolx...anyway, i'm doing fine now and as you can see in the photo, i'm still healthy and kicking :)

the most morbid post yet

At least i'm still alive...

...the most morbid day of my life at I-95 south in Carmel on Monday, March 31, 2008.

all i remember was the car spinning as it swerved off the highway and smashed into the trees...spinning and screaming...spinning and screaming...

you know some movies show flashes of scenes when some kind of emergency sorta tragedy happens, for example prior to the crash of an airplane, the director roles and the 1st scene - the plane starts shaking violently, then it's darkness, then flash 2nd scene, people screaming, then darkness, 3rd scene the oxygen masks drops from the top compartment, then darkness...on and on it roles...until there's nothing left...

that's exactly what it felt like. that's the feeling i felt when i saw myself at the brink of death...

i vaguely remember myself being caught in the side window of the car, my body bent forward at an extreme position, like that of a contortionist. My back hurt so badly, i pushed myself out...the car must have still been spinning cause the next thing i knew, i was under the wheel...

there, lying in a pool of water (snow which had melted from the heat of the car)...in shock, cold and crying...i saw my arm under the wheel, i decided that it would be better if i just died there and then...and then i reached out with my bleeding right hand to feel my left arm and to my relief, it wasn't under the wheel, it was just my jacket that was pinned under...and if you were wondering, yes, at the point of death and in extreme shock, all common sense and all basic instinct left me and i ACTUALLY had to literally feel my left arm to realise that it wasn't under the wheel. i didn't know otherwise.

but my back felt awkward, weird, not really painful, it just felt like there was something really wrong, couldn't place exactly what was wrong at that time, just that it felt weak and weird...and there was so much blood...my head was bleeding badly...but then i didn't know either, i couldn't see the back of my head, i just saw all of it on my right hand, there were deep cuts but it didn't make sense to me, cause even so, there wouldn't be THAT MUCH...until i touched the back of my head and there was more blood...that was when i REALLY panicked and cried more, why was there sooo much blood??? oh Lord, please save me, please, i don't wana die...

car accident: very bad..............

car accident, injured and bleeding: very, very , very bad....

car accident, injured and bleeding in a blistering cold weather: not funny AT ALL.....

I was freezing, my clothes were soaked to the skin and i was shivering like crazy, i probably looked like i was electrocuted at the rate i was shivering, wp and bee gave me their jackets to protect me from the chills but it was hardly any use cause it was too damn bloody cold...then the firemen finally came...in what seemed like eternity...they covered me up more and a really good-looking fireman then cupped his hands around my ears and held my head firm (probably to prevent me from moving my head more), i suddenly felt a surge of warmth, no, not cause he was so damn good-looking, duh....it's cause your ears tend to lose the most heat and what he did really helped to warm me up a little. But he did look like an angel at that point of time, under the sun rays and all... i relaxed a little and had stopped crying by then

And then another firman told me that they had to cut up my jacket...i panicked again...

To my amazement, I said the most bimbotic thing ever, yes, even from me, sheez...

"Please don't cut my shirt inside, don't cut it!!"...i liked that bloody top...they cut up my freaking top!! Stupid firemen.That top cost a friggin' 40+ bucks and they cut it up without even a bat of an eye...

Yar...i'm still amazed at myself, even with a litre of blood flowing from my head, even with possible hypothermia and even with an arm caught under a car wheel, i still managed the energy to get mad at the fireman for cutting up my top.

Stupid firman....stupid, stupid fireman...

After cutting up my jacket AND my top, they proceeded to lift me and and place me on a stretcher, which was the hardest thing i've ever laid on by the way....

Apparantly they had to saw the branches off to get the stretcher to me cause the car was in the woods, they carried me up and out of the woods and onto the ambulance, after which they took off my jeans and cut up more of my top(!!!) until i was left in my undies....this was in front of men(firemen) i've never met before in my entire life...how humiliating...they put hot pads and injected warm fluid into me intravenally to keep me warm....As I lay on the INCREDIBLY HARD stretcher, the firemen started asking me questions, i couldn't keep my mouth shut about the hardness of the stretcher. When i suggested to them that they needed to change the stretcher cause it was horribly uncomfortable, they burst out laughing -_-" Alrightzzz, i know it's meant to be hard to support the back in case of injury but...argh...

They drove me down to Eastern Maine Medical Centre (EMMC), where i was pushed into the emergency room. A nurse was on standby and he started talking to me to kept my mind occupied instead of waiting for the doctors to arrive. The conversation went on and on and we started talking about his brother who's also an accountant working in ontario i think and how it's such a good job and his brother gets to travel alot...If you weren't there and you couldn't see me in my state, you would have imagined 2 perfectly normal friends having a normal conversation over a cup of coffee...but the fact was, i was on a hospital bed covered in blood, bruises and twigs and i probably smelled like "a million bucks"...

Another nurse came in and she was like "oh my, i saw the news just before i came to work, it must have been terrible experience huh" My first thought? Wah, the reporters here so efficient, i only just had an accident and it's already on the news, they even managed to snap shots too!! Crazy man...They're like those japanese samurai who can pop out at any place, any time, any where...

this is the photo the reporters took on the scene of the accident, that's me on the stretcher...so no face can...my one and only time on a provincial newpaper has to be like that...just great... fantastic...

The female nurse then told me that she was going to give me a folly(or however you spell it, it's the thing you have to put into your urethra to help you pee when you're bedridden and can't get up)....that was my worst nightmare...really...1) it was humiliating 2) it was @#%^& painful especially with a broken back 3)and after poking and probing at my groin, she still couldn't put it in place, which meant they'll hafta get another nurse to do it again.....which meant another round of painful humiliation. which a day later proved to be many, many, many rounds of humiliation because they got 1 nurse after another to do it, waking me up from my sleep in wee hours of the night, each attempt as unsuccessful as the other, leaving me in extreme annoyance.

1st time - "oh gosh, go away, i don't wana put whatever folly, it's humiliating!!"

2nd time - "go AWAY. one is humiliating enough, now there's a 2nd one"

3rd time - "oh great, how many nurses are there gona be, please just kill me right now"

4th time - "wth, just do it already, stop bothering me and get it over and done with, you incompetent nurses!!"

5th time - "zzZZZZZZZ, huh?? zzZZZZ" (it was probably already 2 am and yes, the nerve of them to wake me up!!)

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100th time (obviously not 100 times, i'm exagerrating, but it felt like the 100th time) - "DO IT!! DO IT! QUICK!! LET ME SLEEP!!"

.... they finally did around....4am on the second night. wth.

I realized i've drifted out of point. Anyway, the first day of the accident, i waited and waited and waited till it was late at night when they finally managed to get me a room in the hospital. By then, i had drifted in and out of sleep thousands and millions of times and they had me hooked up to the IV and had me taking painkillers every 5 minutes (wouldn't people get addicted to painkillers at this rate??) They did MR scans and hellava other scans to check for any injuries and whaddya know, i got a 50% compression of my L1 vertebra, a C4 fracture on my neck and at that time, they didn't manage to spot it, but i also suffered a crack on my right elbow.

Freaking lotta injuries, plus bruises all over my back legz and arms and hands and a deep cut on my head.

One hellava memorable road trip.