Bloody Christmas Present

I once mentioned that I am like Bella because I’m terribly clumsy and proceeded to enumerate my numerous mishaps. However, most of those mishaps did not result in a bloody mess like the one I got tonight:

The funny thing is, I went running through the MRT turnstiles and up the escalator just to catch the Expo train earlier but I managed to do so without tripping in my high heels.

But when I was leisurely walking down my neighborhood’s sidewalk, just some hundred or so strides away from home, I slipped on a crack that I did not see and ended up on the concrete pavement.

Now normally I would immediately stand up and walk on as if nothing happened, but this time around I was in such pain that I couldn’t move for a long time. I just sat there, my shoulder bag and bags of groceries strewn in front of me, my legs stretched out to my right.

Three different pairs of strangers stopped to ask me if I was okay and if I needed any help but I shook my head no, thanked them, and told them to go on, that I could get up as soon as the pain passed. The impact was so great, it scraped off the nail polish on my right toes. And yes that’s dried blood on my big toe. It dripped from my wound.

When I could finally move, I dragged myself to my flat, dropped off my groceries, then proceeded to find a clinic to have my wound dressed.

It was past 9pm already so most clinics were closed. I found an open one near Hougang Plaza but the girl told me they charged a minimum of S$75 at that hour. Are you freaking kidding me? For just a wound?

She said my wound looked bad and I might need antibiotics and creams because if it got infected I might get fever. I asked if they accepted Mediguard, my company medical card. Only on business hours, she said. Oh? And why??? Geez.

I said thanks but no thanks. I bought a Betadyne and some bandages from Guardian instead. I don’t know if the price she quoted is the standard here, but pardon me for freaking out because in our family, we rarely went to the hospital because it was too costly. Mom kept a huge stash of medicines for self medication and I think the only times I ever went to see a doctor was when I had tonsillitis and dengue fever, not at the same time of course.

Sometimes we even resorted to herbs such as pounding Malunggay leaves or chewing Guava leaves and putting them on our wounds. Well I don’t know where to find those in this metropolis so I just cleaned up my wound with alcohol (boy did it sting!) and Betadyne and put a bandage over it.

Then tomorrow I will visit the clinic during office hours so that I can use my medical card for free consultation and medicines. It won’t get infected during the night, right? Malayo naman sa bituka eh!