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.