{"id":268,"date":"2008-10-26T17:47:15","date_gmt":"2008-10-26T23:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=268"},"modified":"2013-03-06T04:58:59","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T11:58:59","slug":"bicycle-ride-to-danshui-begins-with-being-lost-inside-guandu-mrt-station-and-ends-a-broken-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/bicycle-ride-to-danshui-begins-with-being-lost-inside-guandu-mrt-station-and-ends-a-broken-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Bicycle Ride to Danshui Begins with Being Lost Inside Guandu MRT Station and Ends with a Broken Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"oopsMost of you have heard the breaking news in our family, so you know that I\u2019m doing reasonably<\/strong>, all things considered.\u00a0 Possibly, some of you want a more complete story.<\/em>\u00a0 Also, I\u2019m likely to write about my experience in the hospital and with the medical personnel here,<\/a> so I might as well begin at the beginning.\u00a0 It’s your choice to read any of it, but it helps me to write it all down. So here it goes –<\/p>\n

Saturday, midday, we all agreed to go on a bike ride along the Danshui River up to the ocean<\/strong>.\u00a0 We only have 3 bikes we own here, so Greg, Jesse, and Natalie rode from our apartment, while Carlie and I rode the rapid transit train to a station listed as near a bicycle rental shop.\u00a0 Their ride took them about 45 minutes and they thought we\u2019d be waiting for them.<\/p>\n

The maps can be deceptive.<\/strong>\u00a0 It looked like<\/em> all Carlie and I had to do was get off of the train and walk a half a block to the river and bike rental.\u00a0 It ended up that there were two exits from the station.\u00a0 We even looked at the more detailed map of the town just inside the station, but, sigh, I took the wrong exit and we ended up with the station and train tracks between us and the way we wanted to go.<\/em>\u00a0 Its not all that easy for me to tell how I am are oriented to the maps when I\u2019m are inside the stations.\u00a0 I can see the streets in relation to the station.\u00a0 But the \u2018you are here\u2019 (in English) sticker doesn\u2019t give me markers inside the standard rectangle that represents the station.\u00a0 The signs and paths to the exits vary in funneling the foot traffic upstairs, downstairs, around curving hallways.\u00a0 By the time I get out, my sense of orientation is seriously challenged.<\/em><\/p>\n

There were not any main streets to be seen directly outside the station.\u00a0<\/strong> It was surrounded by a labyrinth of back alleys.\u00a0<\/em> Carlie and I wandered around those for about 15 minutes, turning around at dead ends and unhopeful, narrow passages.\u00a0 Finally, Greg called and I admitted to being slightly lost, but I thought I had an idea of how to head for a main street and get out of the maze.\u00a0 He said don\u2019t worry about it and said they\u2019d wait.<\/p>\n

Carlie had the reasonable suggestion to just go back through the station<\/strong>, saying they might not charge us for just passing through.\u00a0 There is no way to get through with out swiping the card or paying a token.\u00a0 It did end up costing us about 55 US cents each, but it definitely seemed more hopeful.\u00a0 However, we followed someone who looked like he might know which way he was going, in the general direction that I thought we should go.\u00a0 It turned out to be another wild alley blocked by broken cars, offering no view of where it might go after that.\u00a0 We chose to turn around soon after our \u2018guide\u2019 did.<\/p>\n

Back at the station, there was a new large influx of people going out another way that didn\u2019t look like it went anywhere in particular, but it was about the only way we hadn\u2019t tried.\u00a0<\/strong> Viola!\u00a0 After walking a few feet under a makeshift looking covered walkway, we turned a corner and the aspect of our escape opened up before us.\u00a0 Greg called me on the cell phone again.\u00a0 I explained our possible progress and confessed to some built up stress, but he said don\u2019t worry about it.\u00a0 He says that a lot.<\/em><\/p>\n

We walked\u00a0 a few hundred more feet under the covered walkway and found ourselves on more promising streets, connected to bigger streets.<\/strong>\u00a0 There was another small sign post saying you are here, go this way, so I tried.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I still didn\u2019t choose the correct way.\u00a0 We went in a big block of a circle, but arrived 3\/4ths of the way around just in time to see Greg and the other kids biking towards the station.\u00a0 We managed to get their attention.\u00a0 Now we headed back to the bike rental station.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>We understood the map that we looked at before we left the apartment.<\/strong>\u00a0 We could find where the Keelung River enters the Danshui.\u00a0 The train stations were noted by a sort of circle within a circle in blue and green.\u00a0 We left from Mingde Station, which was located ( on the map) by following the gray, turning to maroon line connecting the symbols.\u00a0 The Guandu station shows up just above where the rivers meet.<\/em>\u00a0 The bike rental shop is shown as possibly along side the river, just off of a main road.<\/p>\n

In reality, the bike rental shop was\u00a0 at the end of the thick of the same sort of maze of streets that give me sensory overload everywhere we go.\u00a0<\/strong> Greg laughed\u00a0 when he told me to just go straight ahead, because there was no straight ahead.\u00a0<\/em> He had already gone through some language and direction issues trying to find the station.\u00a0 The area was very busy.\u00a0 We reached the rental shop in roughly 15 minutes.\u00a0 I might have passed it by due to concentrating so hard on finding the best route between cars, scooters, and pedestrians, but Greg knew where we were.<\/p>\n

The two ladies running the shop were very friendly.<\/strong>\u00a0 Greg had stopped to ask about prices on his way by the first time.\u00a0 Somehow they had gotten the impression that he was coming back with someone who spoke Mandarin, so they began explaining things to me in the relief that you have when you are speaking to someone who speaks your language.\u00a0<\/em> It didn\u2019t take too long to clear up that misconception, hee hee, but I was able to understand enough to make the transaction.\u00a0 The bikes were great bikes.\u00a0 The cost was more than reasonable at about $3 US per bike for the afternoon.\u00a0 However, they didn\u2019t come with helmets<\/em> and they didn\u2019t have helmets for rent.\u00a0\u00a0 All we had to do was cross the small road to get to the bike path.\u00a0 There appeared to be one helmet for sale hanging on the wall, but if you can understand how hard we had worked just to get to this point, that we were just talking about a leisurely ride along the river, that we didn\u2019t want to spend money unnecessarily, and every transaction takes a fair amount of energy, maybe you can understand the decision of the moment.\u00a0 We opted to give the helmets to the kids and be on our way.<\/p>\n

The ride towards the ocean was beautiful and relaxing.<\/strong>\u00a0 Most of the path was clearly designated.\u00a0 Where it wasn\u2019t, there were enough people riding to show us the way.\u00a0 Passersby were of all varieties, from families with a few small children to more serious cyclists enjoying the weekend.\u00a0 There were quite a few pedestrians, as there always are on the bike paths.\u00a0 Everyone was very polite, but knew how to keep the flow going in spite of congestion.<\/p>\n

Greg had wanted to ride all the way to the ocean, but the path didn\u2019t seem to go that far.\u00a0<\/strong> We could see it, though.\u00a0 We walked our bikes a ways through the dense crowds of people along the Danshui boardwalk that begins at Danshui Station, then finally turned around.\u00a0 We tried for ice cream at one gourmet store, but they were out of chocolate, so we moved on.\u00a0 Once we had exited the general vicinity of the Danshui Station, the bike path was more open again and we rode with freedom, breezes pleasantly cooling our faces.<\/p>\n

One breeze came up a little stronger as we were going down a hill and threatened to blow off my baseball cap that I had worn for a visor.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 I reached up to keep it from leaving, as I had done a number of times during the ride, but knew instantly that I had made a mistake.\u00a0 The next thing I knew I was face down on the asphalt, bleeding from somewhere on my face, feeling completely stunned and unable to move.<\/strong>\u00a0 Poor Carlie was yelling at me frantically, \u201cMommy, are you okay?\u201d over and over, but I couldn\u2019t manage to answer her.\u00a0 After an undetermined amount of time, I remember trying to tell her to call her dad.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t recall that, but did call him.\u00a0 Greg, a ways ahead, only remembers someone yelling his name, which Carlie maintains she didn\u2019t do.\u00a0 He showed up beside me and gently, but insistently, asked me to at least move out of the middle of the path.\u00a0 It was safer and would help him evaluate how badly I was hurt.\u00a0 A couple of English speaking Taiwanese offered assistance, but I didn\u2019t look that hurt to him and he wasn\u2019t sure what we were going to be doing next.\u00a0 I said no to an ambulance and they finally left us.<\/p>\n

In a few minutes he got me to try standing up.<\/strong>\u00a0 I was a bit woozy, weak, and my vision was not quite right<\/em>, but we did manage a little walking.\u00a0 Then we began walking with the bikes.\u00a0 It soon became apparent that my rate of speed would not get us home before midnight.\u00a0 He was agreeable to my idea of sending me home in\u00a0 a taxi with one of the kids.\u00a0 Jesse was chosen for that responsibility.\u00a0 Greg and the girls continued on the path with 5 bikes.<\/p>\n

The taxi driver showed concern for me by driving smoothly.<\/strong>\u00a0 I was grateful to be deposited at the gate with Jesse to help me in my state of instability.\u00a0 Jesse prepared me a perfect ice pack, a glass of water, and 2 ibuprofen.\u00a0 Then I rested while we waited for Greg and the girls, wondering how they were managing.<\/p>\n

The pace of walking the bikes was still too slow for Greg.\u00a0<\/strong> He opted to leave the girls with four bikes and with his phone, while he rode\u00a0 one of the bikes to the rental shop.\u00a0 The lady there could tell something wasn\u2019t right and tried to ask, but he had no way to make her understand and didn\u2019t want to leave the girls any longer than necessary.\u00a0 He ran back to the girls, tried walking with them for a while, but still thought better progress could\u00a0 be made by returning the other rental.<\/em>\u00a0 When he showed up without anyone with the second bike, the shop keeper was even\u00a0 more concerned, but his first priority was getting back to the girls and, then, me.\u00a0 He ran back to them again and all three of them rode to the apartment from somewhere north of Guandu Station.<\/p>\n

When they got home, he decided that I wasn\u2019t \u201cconvincing him that I was really okay,\u201d as he put it.<\/strong>\u00a0 He called one of the realtors and asked if they would help get me to the hospital.\u00a0 She, Susan, happened to be walking very close by, on her way for her Saturday evening recreation.\u00a0 She was at our house within minutes.\u00a0 The other realtor, Sylvia, had been spending extended hours at the hospital for the last six days due to her father\u2019s serious condition.\u00a0 She met us as we got out of the taxi.\u00a0 She was pleased to use her new familiarity with the facilities to help us.<\/p>\n

It seems that this hospital is working at full capacity.<\/strong>\u00a0 She told me that it is largely understood that if someone really needs help, they should just go in through the emergency room.\u00a0 As it was,\u00a0 she and her father waited 3 days just in the emergency room hallway for\u00a0 a bed to open up on the floors.\u00a0<\/em> He meanwhile had a bed in the hallway.\u00a0 In verification of her story, we saw the extra wide hallway lined with many beds, maybe as many as 50, perpendicular to the wall.\u00a0 An assortment of families or concerned friends were with most patients.\u00a0 There was a constant movement of mostly beds and some wheelchairs down the center of the hall, where just enough space was left for them to pass each other with care.\u00a0 I was going to try to walk when I got up out of the taxi, but my legs began to fail me, so I let them force me into a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

Registration was surprisingly quick and smooth.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it helped to have our friends there.\u00a0 It also meant that there was always someone with me, while Greg was signing things and giving insurance information.\u00a0 I was wheeled into the trauma room,<\/strong> which was a ward type room, easily accommodating four beds on one side and at least one on the side that lead to the ER doctor\u2019s exam room.\u00a0 If I smiled at other patients, they always smiled back and gave some sort of greeting.\u00a0 One more elderly lady was there for the same exact accident that I was, but she looked more unhappy about it.\u00a0 Her friends and family talked freely with us ( by translation) and the realtors.\u00a0 We\u00a0 joked half-seriously with the family and doctors about not getting my x-rays, etc, confused with hers!\u00a0 The doctors assured us they would be quite careful.\u00a0 All in all, patients and visitors wandered quite freely, checking up with the doctors to make sure they hadn\u2019t been forgotten or to find out what was happening next.\u00a0 I never got any sense of irritation or impatience from the doctors.<\/p>\n

The first order of business for me was to have my abrasions cleaned.\u00a0 I tried to convince the nurse that I could do that at home by myself and that was not why I had come.\u00a0<\/em> They were going to follow standard procedure, though.\u00a0 I asked her to be gentle, which brought a friendly smile to her face.\u00a0 When I was in the most discomfort from that procedure and exclaiming somewhat frequently, I commented that \u201cit is at times like this that I like to bring up that I had 7 children without anesthesia, so I\u2019m no wimp!\u201d\u00a0 Everyone laughed (you can assume there is a lot of translation constantly going on), but then laughed again when Greg cleverly mentioned that I screamed then, too.\u00a0 (Ha!\u00a0 I think I still get credit.)<\/p>\n

When the doctor spoke with me, she was most concerned with movement of my arms and legs and whether or not my ribs were fractured.\u00a0<\/strong> By that time, I had begun to have some sharp pains upon movement in my ribcage area.\u00a0 An x-ray and further evaluation suggest that is is only from muscle spasms.\u00a0 As noted by Greg earlier, my face didn\u2019t look all that bad for someone who had just hit the pavement.\u00a0 There was not any broken skin, no major discoloration yet, and no serious pain.\u00a0 However, when I told them that I could barely open my mouth, my face was numb, and my teeth felt slightly misaligned, they took some head x-rays.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the break in my cheek bone was discovered.\u00a0<\/strong> They decided it was prudent to check for other breakage in my face and any hemorrhage.\u00a0 There was not any sign of bleeding in the cranium and I don\u2019t think they found anything else broken.<\/p>\n

At this point, our chief object was to make sure that we understood that the operation was necessary.<\/strong>\u00a0 The bottom line was yes, if I ever want to be able to open my mouth again.\u00a0<\/em> After seeing the x-rays and CAT scans of the depressed fracture, I think I believe them.\u00a0 Also, Greg did some online research that seems to confirm the limited options in such cases.\u00a0 The probable site for the incision will be between my lips and teeth.\u00a0 Yes, I\u2019m a bit nervous about it, but maybe I\u2019ll get some intensive language study in?\u00a0 The language instructors tell us not to move our lips so much…<\/p>\n

One new Christian friend was scheduled to visit this Tuesday afternoon, so I had to let her know.\u00a0 She speaks both English and Mandarin fluently, having grown up mostly in Hong Kong, but lived most of her adult life in Silicon valley.\u00a0 She said she is available 24\/7 to help translate.\u00a0 Also, she and her husband had intense experience with the medical system when he broke his leg severely and had to be hospitalized for 2 months.\u00a0 So you can see that I have lots of support here.<\/p>\n

I rested well last night, in spite of Greg \u2018bothering\u2019 me every two hours on doctors orders to check for signs of brain hemorrhaging.\u00a0<\/strong> I\u2019m sore and stiff on the side of my body that impacted, as would be expected.\u00a0 Greg and the kids have fed me well.\u00a0 I slept for several hours in the middle of the day.\u00a0 I\u2019m continuing to apply ice packs regularly, since they can\u2019t do the surgery until the swelling has subsided, but want to do it before the bone sets in its broken shape.\u00a0 I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to evaluate my status and make further plans.\u00a0<\/em> Below is the paper telling of my appointment with the plastic surgeon.<\/p>\n

\"oops<\/p>\n

The top line supposedly says \u201cappointment.\u201d\u00a0 The portion written in the middle, just to the left of the label with my name on it, says \u201cplastic surgery something.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those of you who care to see, here is a view of my face today:<\/p>\n

\"oops<\/p>\n

I am happy to report that m&ms fit, just barely, into my mouth, and melt there nicely<\/strong>.\u00a0 Carlie and Greg are making ice cream and cake, which I am hopeful about.\u00a0 Now, I must go ice my face. story continues here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of you have heard the breaking news in our family, so you know that I\u2019m doing reasonably, all things considered.\u00a0 Possibly, some of you want a more complete story.\u00a0 Also, I\u2019m likely to write about my experience in the hospital and with the medical personnel here, so I might as well begin at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,31],"tags":[36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}