Dropped on head, still got it!

Yesterday, my friend Sarah organised for a group of us to do the latest room in the Mystic Clue Room Escape experience in Canningvale. I have done one of these rooms before with another group of friends. While it was a fun experience, we needed heaps of help solving the puzzles. Not that they were that difficult, or that we were that dumb-- we just way overthought some of the solutions. Each time we figured it out, we had a "Duh!" moment.

The Bat room promised to be a little bit different, with gears, sensors, and mechanised puzzles. I don't want to give too much away. It was exactly that. But there were delightful surprises. And great atmosphere. And very satisfying solutions.

We figured it out in 45 minutes with no help, and so were very happy escapees.

2014 Retrospective

I have been wracking my brain trying to think of a succinct way to sum up the year, and I'm not coming up with much. Obviously the last month has been dominated with my new crogan status (crippled bogan, I've inherited the title from Trish). But the other 11/12ths of the year was generally delightful!

Merry Christmas!

Styling by Jesse K. Halo & dress are model's own.

Wishing everybody a very Merry Xmas and holiday season! Hope you ate yourselves silly. I certainly tried to.

Halo Clinic - Week 2.5

Halo clinic came early this week! Since no one wants to be working on Boxing Day.

One of my pins is infected-- actually, the technical terms used by the medical staff were "grodey" and "squiffy". So in addition to the topical cleaner, I'm now on antibiotics. Fortunately for the holiday season, not one of the ones that interact with alcohol. However, it is one of the ones that needs to be taken on an empty stomach. Good luck with that over Christmas!

'tis the season

Halo Clinic - Week 2

Week 2 of Halo clinic is done and dusted! I am now 1/6th (16%) of the way through!

The pins are holding up nicely, although unfortunately the rear left one is being a crusty bum. The nurse kindly gave us some special solution to try and clear up any brewing infection. It's blue, so I'm pretty sure it will work.

During the past week my poles have been creaking and clicking so I have been concerned about loose pins. However at the appointment, the pins all had an adequate amount of pressure on them (ranging from 6-8 pounds) before they were tightened. Apparently the clicking is normal, and the reason they are doing it more now than they were in the first week is because I am moving around more. Makes sense.

Only 10 weeks more to go! Yahoo!

FAQ

Another week down! It has been a very busy week.

Halo Clinic - Week 1

This afternoon I attended my first halo clinic at the Outpatient clinic of the hospital.

Ortho clinic getting into the holiday spirit

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Hanako kindly came around today to cut my hair into a more aesthetically pleasing style. At the hospital, I had been rocking a mad mohawk, but that was impractical for the long-term. No hair washing since I can't get my head wet for 3 months, and the bars prevent me from doing any meaningful grooming. So as soon as I got home, I asked Greg to shave the rest off.

He did the best he could under the circumstances, but his clippers were no match for the silky softness that was my hair. The hair was shorter but that's really all you could say.

So after a couple of days of looking like a little scrub, Hanako came around wielding her magic scissors. Although she didn't have much to work with, she actually managed to do something with it!

Lucky, as the doctor said, "[You] have a very symmetrical head".

I'll miss my long hair and will dedicate all of my resources to growing it back as soon as the brace comes off. For now though, it is delightfully cool and low-maintenance.

Outings

I went on my first outing today after getting the halo. I needed to get some cash out, and purchase a few things from Officeworks. It was my first exposure to the outside world, and the outside world's first exposure to me!

I was intimidated when I realised I was walking into Joondalup Shopping Centre during one of the busiest periods of the year. With my extremely short haircut and loose fitting clothes, and oh yes, my bling, I wasn't feeling like a fashion model. I was anticipating horrified looks, and sensitive people bursting into tears, and a million questions, and possibly setting off all of the alarms.

Only one of those things happened. I did get a few mildly horrified looks and people did stare/did their best not to stare, but otherwise it was barely different than the normal shopping outing. People did tend to give me a wider berth, which was very useful since my head is two times wider than usual, with spikes everywhere. Actually, that made it even more annoying when people didn't give me a wider berth, because I was sure I was going to put someone's eye out.

The funniest thing was the kids who saw me. They literally could not tear their eyes away. I smiled at them, and I think that made one cry. I might need to invest in some tinsel and fairy lights before I see my friends with young kids again.

Adjustment Period

I walked out of the hospital a week after I had gone in. I had entered flat on my back, and came out on my feet, so would normally consider this a win. The fact that I now had a rabbit cage on my head only slightly dampened the victory.

Getting a Halo and Becoming an Angel

Before the news that I was getting a neck brace, the only one I had been exposed to was on the comedy sketch show Key and Peele. That was played for laughs but I thought it look really unpleasant. Little did I know one was in my future!

Getting the News

After we finally got the news that my neck was well and truly buggered we could finally discuss the treatment plan. In my mind, I had already committed my mind to a neck brace, possibly because until that point all of the medical professionals had downplayed the injury. Everything that had been done until that point was "preventative". I thought they were preventing "further damage". They were actually preventing "total paralysis".

It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Breaks Their Neck

It started as a holiday from our holiday, coming down to Perth to celebrate our birthdays. I had my celebration on Friday night, and on Saturday we went to the Moore River for Greg's and Jaimie's, where the boys had built a waterslide down a massive sand dune. The boys had been playing on it for hours without incident, before I became the unluckiest person to ever go down it.

Hello, Halo!

At the beginning of 2014, I had a fairly good idea of what I would be doing by the end of the year. I would be jobless, and homeless, and living out of a car with my boyfriend. We were going to drive around Australia, living out of a customised troopcarrier, enjoying life on the road.

As September wrapped up, we actually made good on this dream, and got as far as Darwin. Although we hadn't planned on staying in Darwin initially, we were happy and making a good life up there.We had spent about a month in Darwin before coming back to Perth for the weekend, to celebrate my 30th birthday and Greg's 25th birthday. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We were expecting to have a good time with friends and family, and to return to Darwin refreshed and more eager than ever to get back on the road.

What I wasn't expecting was to break my neck in a freak waterslide accident!

Fortunately I didn't sustain any spinal cord or brain damage, but I did fracture 3 spinal vertebrae. As a result, my round-Australia adventure has been slightly delayed, and a whole other adventure, with less beautiful scenery, has begun.

I have to wear a halo brace as part of my treatment. Since receiving the news that I would be getting one (taken well, as you can imagine), I have been reading a lot of people's experiences with them. But not as many as I would have liked to have seen, so I am adding my own record to the catalogue in the hope that it might help or interest someone else down the line.

My halo selfie