Time To Apologise

Dear readers of this not-very-up-to-date newspaper.

I have to apologise.

The article about me being online was only half true (read it if you have no idea what this is about), you could have guessed that because of the poor humour and overdosage or irony.
The reason for that is simple. I was floating on a cloud of painkillers thinking I was strong and could take over the world.

I honestly expected to be in SL in two weeks time when I wrote that.

Reality had hit quite hard. It's now 7 months and I still am not able to go into SL without repercussions, I have tested it a few times.

My brain has had about six scans. The latest doesn't show any damage. All the ones before show a brain that has been smashed to one side. First one shows a gap about the size of a apple on one side, filled with blood or a liquid.
You can imagine a list of permanent consequences (personality change, memory loss, speaking with a Scottish accent etc). Strike it, from the way it looks there is no permanent brain damage. I sometimes forget things, no more as usual and I still can blame that on an incident in my childhood. Had some weird glitches in my vision but that was ages ago and can also be accredited to the painkillers.
So brain is ok.

I thought that a few ribs were broken. I was wrong. After writing the article I have had several scans. It wasn't a few, it was most on one side. The rest, left and right were all bruised. The side that was broken caused less pain as the side that was bruised.
Not only were ribs broken, my sternum, or chest bone, was broken at three places. next to pain it has caused a (now permanent) change in chest configuration. One side of the sternum is now up, and the other, lower,  side is depressed. This changes my collar bones, the position of my shoulders and of course the ribs behind that.

Besides the two fractured vertebra in my spine they have forgotten to tell me that the vertebra above and below were also damaged. So in total six vertebra were broken.
Below each lung there was a blob of fluid, blood, the size of a grapefruit.

I was very disappointed that the hospital didn't inform me on my brokenness, I had to find out after I was home. I have been told that my bones have healed now.

After minor physical activity I had more pain, became extremely tired and could not control my breathing.
So to investigate that I was examined by a lung specialist and an internist. The lung specialist concluded that my lungs have normal capacity and that despite the new configuration (of my chest) my lungs are not impacted.
The internist also could not find any problems with my new configuration. But when an internist starts to investigate they will always find things that are slightly out of the normal. One of the things she found is an enlarged thyroid that will need some attention.
Both could not explain my pain, my exhaustion and uncontrolled breathing. There are no organs or other things that are pushed down.

The pain I had to go through was intense. Slowly things recovered. Was able to sleep on one side, few weeks later the other side. Could not sneeze or cough without sinking through the floor, can now.

I have reduced the intake of painkillers sorta. What remains, for now, is the maximum dosage of paracetamol (acetaminophen).

I did find a possible cause for the extra pain, exhaustion and uncontrolled breathing. Any minor activity will cause that. I have started a slow program with exercise beginning with.. ten minutes walking a day with my cane I also realise that pain will cause exhaustion.

My mistake was to use a moment in time as a reference when I thought I could do almost everything while being deeply immersed into painkillers.

My posture is extremely important and I must rest, sleep, once during daytime to keep pain under control. Oddly enough that daytime sleep does not affect my night sleeping. Must slowly build new (and better!) muscles. One problem is, there is no direct feedback of doing things wrong and the pain that follows. It takes a day to feel the consequences and it doesn't take much to make an error.

I thought I could enter Second Life with ease. My first experiment with that went horribly wrong. I was on-line and hour, little more, and had to suffer for a week long.

Second Life is immersive. When I enter SL my muscles, in my back, tense up. Even with a timer I can not control that. It is very different as Twitter or following the Feed.

My last experiment gives one day of pain after an hour of SL.

I feel I had to write this, for completeness and to explain why I wasn't able to enter SL and keep the newspaper running.

I have neglected my responsibilities as a janitor, park ranger (?) and newspaper editor. I wasn't there for my close friends. I can't make any promises on what I can do.

Now I follow a slow program to increase my resistance and stamina. A physio therapist is testing me gently once a week and has given me a small training program. Not a workout as in a gym, but some movements of my upper body and legs I must do once a day.

So Roc, you have to continue with my janitorial responsibilities. I can not lift a broom.
Stop calling about the missing newspapers Syl! Once it's possible the newspaper will be published as usual and you'll get a refund (!) for all the missed editions.

Editor Vick Forcella
20210227

Lead Editor Of The Bay City Post Back On-line

The Lead Editor of the Bay City Post (Vick Forcella, me) has been off-line for about four weeks. Many were worried, have send me questions, so I will explain how and why hoping it will answer your questions.

With doing so I will break two rules, using the Bay City Post for something personal and giving away private information that could potentially be abused to identify my RL identity. I do this totally in the spirit of Ever who agrees with me in doing so.

Sit down and enjoy the following story.

One Sunday afternoon, the beginning of August this year, the weather prediction was good. No winds, some sunshine and it looked like it would be the last mild day with a heat wave following. A great day for a walk into nature for me, my wife and the dog. I selected a patch of nature I had not visited before.

After walking for about an hour I woke up. Something was pushing me down with great force. I started breathing but I only managed to inhale short puffs of air and say "help" while I exhaled. I wiggled my left toe, right toe, left hand, right hand. Nothing broken so far. I could not get up.

After some time I heard a male voice saying my name. You are under tree. Don't worry, we will get you out soon. 

I hear a helicopter landing, I hear a chainsaw. I see my left shoe to the right of my face, I realise my foot is inside. I fear that the chainsaw could cause something to break ripping me in two.

Next I know I am in an ambulance, racing. Racing towards the University hospital. There I go in/out scans and receive a welcome dosage of morphine.

My wife had heard a strange noise. Shouted Run! She went one way, I went the other. She had lost me, the dog found me under a fallen tree. She pushed away some branches and found me face down, mouth in the sand. She tilted my head and removed the sand. I started breathing and calling for help. She removed as much as she could but could not free me.

My phone was down somewhere. She ran away and found people with a phone and willing to help. They called the emergency services. and ran to the road to wait for the ambulance, point them towards me. 

My wife became very scared when she found my left foot to the right of my head and observed from a distance as the fire fighters started working. Last thing she recalls is me shouting I love you as I was lifted into the ambulance. (not the helicopter)

My time in the University hospital was a bit weird. Besides of the opiates and the scans they continued to ask me my name, where I am and what day it was. Silly hospital, don't they have a calendar?

I spend about a week there. Not sure if I ever was able to come out of the bed by myself. I think it was there that I have send a text to a very good friend in SL and asked to inform Marianne.

Next I was raced to my local hospital. There I was able to leave the bed and walk with a cart in front of me. 

The verdict.
Besides "should have been dead" and "most luckiest guy in the world" my ribs are giving pain while breathing. They tell me it's not broken, I do not believe them. 

Two of the bones in my back are broken. The fractures are on the inside and not where there is great risk of a spinal injury, loosing control over breathing or loosing control over my lower body. It's stable.

I have had bleeding inside my head. My brain should be famous with three pictures taken. The pictures reveal it was healing quite good.

I had a bleeding wound on my head and had stitches. 

After the local hospital I went to a revalidation home. Much freedom, pure luxury. 

My wife wanted me home, and so did I. She had to twist the arm of someone to get a hospital bed at home for me so she could care for me.

I'm at home now.

I can not twist my back, bend down, pick up anything from the floor. It's painful and quite risky.
I can not breath deep as my ribs will hurt me.
I can not sleep on my side, only on my back and that hurts too. I sleep in slices of one hour, wake up with pain, walk around, eat something, then go back to bed. I have been lucky a few times with a slice of two hours.
I should not go tired. My brain will do very weird things when I go tired. It hasn't happened for a week now so I am hopeful but I better be careful. It is one of the reasons why I can not go on-line and pretend nothing has happened.
I am very emotional and I'm crying about just anything.

Though I am trying to reduce my usage I am using various painkillers.

I try to walk, behind a cart, for half an hour every day. The cart is needed for when and if I loose balance and I can sit when I'm tired.

The doctor removed my stitches yesterday and nothing fell out.

Strange things.
Even though my left leg pretended for a week not to be mine it is fully back to normal. No pain at all.
There is a video on-line (that I am not sharing) that shows the tree that fell on me. A 50 year old oak tree. It shows THE OTHER HALF OF THAT TREE still standing. I must presume that the tree once has been struck by lightning, split in half, top/down, and was waiting for me to pass by, and then fall down.

No idea what is next. According to several wiki entries I should be in hospital being monitored. According to the same wiki pages it takes one and a half year at minimum to heal. I told myself I have to be extra careful another month, then have a talk with a doc.

The Bay City Post will be published. As long as there is a community there will be a Bay City Post. Don't pin me down on a publication date.

Don't send me plants or shrubbery, they can attack.

Editor Vick Forcella
20200828