Island Med Student

I get knocked down.
But I get up again.
You’re never going to keep me down.
- Chumbawamba

Yesterday, as I was about to finish my 8 mile run, into Manhattan and back, in 11 degree Fahrenheit + 50 MPH wind weather, early in the morning before my hospital rotation, I got knocked down. I was running with my two doggies, Scope and Molly, and Molly decided to lunge forward unexpectedly towards another doggy. It caught me off guard, and I came crashing down onto the sidewalk, with a huge amount of inertia, onto the side of my body. My shoulder, elbow, knee and hip slammed against the cold sidewalk, and then my two doggies (totaling 115 pounds) pulled me a few feet along the grit until I came to a non-screetching stop.

It hurt. I mean, it really hurt! The pain was overwhelming. I felt as though every neuron in my body was exploding. It took all my strength to peel myself off the sidewalk, brush off the dirt, and hobble the rest of the way home.

I almost called in sick to the hospital, but it was the last day of my rotation, and I didn’t want to disappoint my attending. By the time I got home, the blood streaming down my knee had turned into bloodcicles. When I got into the shower, the blood melted, and started flowing down my leg. It took a while to obtain hemostasis, and I ended up having to wrap my knee with a 4×4 and gauze to avoid having an obvious blood stain through my pants.

Then I walked one mile to the hospital and tried to pretend like nothing had happened. Since I run so often with my doggies, it was only a matter of time until an accident like this occurred. And although it was a very unpleasant experience, I’m not too upset about it. ‘Tis part and parcel of running with two very strong doggies. And as the saying goes, “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” My wounds will heal, and for that I count my lucky stars. And tomorrow I will pull myself up by my running shoe straps and go for another run.