August 21 2008!

This to you may seem like an unimportant date, but for me, it changed everything.
I woke up as usual that morning to go and teach my student, but more often than
not, we check in with each other to make sure that she is on time, in the country or
generally able to have the lesson. Unable to reach her, till well past the starting time
and already being near her place of work, I nevertheless agreed to cancel the lesson
as it would interfere with her work starting time if we began late, or in turn she would
miss part of her class for the same reason.

So, I decided to stop by and visit friends in the same area, after a cup of coffee and
chat, I left to make my way to work and my next class. It had been raining heavily and
I am always especially careful as I tread in my Crocs not to slip. But coming out of the
elevator in the appartment block, I slipped on a wet patch obviously left by someones
dripping umbrella and found myself twisting my ankle, which I heard snap, and falling
in slow motion to the floor.

On recovering myself and in terrible pain, I saw that my right foot was now twisted
completely around, under excruciating pain, I quick thinking turned it back. Trying my
hardest not to get into panic and pass out, I attempted to reach up to the lift, but that was
an impossibility. So I reached into my handbag and pulled out my cellular phone. It was
to my great distress, impossible to get a connection, either due to the heavy storm outside
or the echo of the building that I found myself in.

This was a real predicament and I had to stop the trembling of my leg that was causing my
whole body to shake uncontorllably. I pulled myself across the floor to the staircase, crossing
my left ankle over the right one, to hold it in a reasonable steady position. I screamed at the
top of my lungs for someone to help me, but this just fell on the echo of the building. This was
in a large residential block, but probably due to the bad weather, most people were staying
indoors and there was no one in sight.

Screaming at the top of my voice, for assistance and calling every number I knew for rescue,
I was finally heard and assistance arrived. Not being able to of course speak Chinese, if took
a further 10 minutes, after the 20-30 that I had already been lying on the floor, for it to be
understood that I needed ambulance assistance and wished to be taken to the ex-pat
(people who are foreigners in China or another place of residence, not of their own nationality)
emergency clinic.

The most brave and calm in the situation, was a young 10 year old, who sat holding my ankle
in place, whilst her mother and another kind woman took care of the explanations to the rescue
ambulance service. When they arrived, the medic in charge splinted up my leg, but I knew
immediately that he had done this incorrectly and tried to gesture for him to do otherwise, but
of course with the lack of adequate words, it was ijmpossible. Nevertheless, with sirens blazing
I was whisked away to the clinic.

There the doctor in charge arranged for an x ray and informed me that I would need immediate
surgery. Now the question was where, how and what coverage did I have? This was besides
the fact that I was in an incredible amount of pain and trying to hold myself together to
coherently decide what would be the next best step to take.