A Terrible Accident For A Great Man

March 14-20, 2011

This week started out with a gloomy shadow right from the get go. When I woke up Monday, I checked Facebook to find a message from Blake about our friend, and his former coworker Wes having had an accident over the weekend, and subsequently being in a coma at the hospital near his house. The story was that he had gotten out of a cab, but a second cab didn't see him, and came around to let another person out, bumping Wes enough to make him fall and hit his head. Since he was so close to the hospital, he was rushed in for surgery right away, to get the pressure off his brain. Then he was placed in the NCU, while they contacted his family, and until he recovers. Hearing news of this nature about anyone is never good, but knowing that it could have been any of us really made our group of friends stop and think.
After contacting a friend of his who knew more about it on Facebook so that I could find out how and when to come and see him, I got ready for work. Since the night before at hockey, the big toe on my left foot had swollen to nearly twice its regular size, and under the nail had turned a dark purple. In fact, it was so swollen that once I got to work, after a long limpy walk there, I had to work the entire day in my socks because wearing shoes hurt too much. While at work, I was showing the toe to my classes, who all thought it was the craziest thing; as well as the teachers, who were concerned I might die. After work, John and I tried to locate a pin that would be strong enough to heat up and push through my nail in order to release the pressure. The pins we found were not up to the task, and I settled for puncturing the back of my nail to let out what fluid I could. The walk home was equally as painful as the walk to school, and once in my apartment, I pt my feet up to try and get the blood away from my toe.
Tuesday morning came, and my toe was in much less pain than the day before, as well as only half as swollen. I was able to walk without too much discomfort, but only if I took it slow. I made some food for the day, and then made my way to work. Work went by without incident, and after work I went home to get my feet up again while I typed up some of my back logged blogs.
Wednesday morning I got up early and so that I could get to the hospital in time to see Wes and his family. Since he is in the NCU, the visiting hours are very restricted. Visitors are only allowed to see him twice a day. Once from 11-1120am, and again from 7-720pm. It made me feel bad to some extent that I would be using up what time there was to see him, but in situations like this it is important to be there to support those in need and offering my help to his family was well received. Wes' mother Monita, brother Casey, and step-father Jim were there, and filled me in on the details of the accident, as well as what the doctors had said so far about his condition. It turns out that Wes was getting out of a taxi near his house when another taxi tried to pull around to let off their fare. The taxi driver didn't see Wes, and vice verse, which resulted in Wes being hit and knocked forward onto his right temple. They performed emergency surgery to remove a large piece of his skull to relieve the pressure, while the taxi driver and some friends waited. There was an official police report, but it seems as though both sides were partially i the wrong, and Wes' family is holding no hard feelings. Especially since the taxi driver comes to see Wes every day, while he is taking a break from praying at church. After the hospital, I caught the subway home to get my lunch, and then went to work where I spent some time sending out some messages to let our friends know of Wes' condition. After work I decided to go to the gym and ride the bike since I couldn't run. It was the first time I had been there at night and there seemed to be a new trainer/user at the facility, who somewhat resembled The Hulk. At first it was a little motivating to see such a huge guy working so hard, but then he thought it would be a good idea to workout with his shirt off, which, don't get me wrong I love "shirts off", is a little inappropriate while there are females using the facility. I ignored it since it was only for a short time, and finished my workout, then went home and ate some food and read before calling it a night.
Thursday morning I woke up feeling well worked over from the gym, so I put off going and made some food to take with me to work. Work went by painlessly since I only teach three classes on Thursdays this semester. After work, I hit the gym again, trying to keep up with my resolution to get in shape before I leave Korea. Again, I rode the bike to warm up, and the went to get my pump on with the weights. The Hulk was there again along with a few cronies, and not surprisingly was shirtless. Being the kind of guy that I am, when they saw me I asked if it was a shirts off party, then motioned as if I was going to take my shirt off as well. They all got the idea, and the Hulk put his shirt back on, looking a little embarrassed. Since I had now broken the ice, we got to talking and it turns out that he is not only a new trainer at the gym, but also a bodybuilder training for a contest in May. His English is slightly better than my nothingness of Korean, but we agreed that he was huge, and that I am going to use him as motivation and for exercise tips. After a brief chat, I got to my workout, and then went home to read and fuel up before bed.
Friday morning I got up and made myself go to the gym so that I wouldn't keep finding excuses to not go. It felt good to get in and work out the stiffness from the night before, and the longer I can keep it up, the easier it should be. After the gym I went to work to get the last day of the week over with. After work, I didn't want to go out since I had made plans to go for the morning visitation to see Wes with Alex and Louise, and instead went back to the gym to get some cardio and a light workout in before the weekend.
Saturday morning I got up just before 10am and got ready to meet Alex and Louise at the Express Bus Terminal for 1050 so we could walk over to the hospital. Once we met, we walked over and went up to see Wes and his family. Casey and Monita were back with him, but the three of us started rotating in to see him and talk with his family. He was looking much better, and they had given him a tracheotomy in order to get the moisture out of his lungs, because he was struggling with pneumonia. After our visit, we all all went down the street for some Dos Tacos, and then on the walk back to Wes' apartment I showed them where the airport bus stop was, and where a gym was in case they wanted to get some energy out. After seeing Wes and having lunch I went home, and had a little nap.
When I woke up I had a shower and got ready to head to Itaewon for dinner with Alex and Louise, Brett and MiSeon, Melanie and WonJong at an Indian place. I got there a bit early so I could meet Frank ad Brady, who had run into Jen and Cherie, for a beer at Crow's Nest Pizzeria. However, as I was coming out of the station I saw a couple trying to carry a rather large package down to the subway, and decided to be a good citizen and help out. After carrying it down three flights of stairs with the husband, I felt i eared my beer, and went to meet everyone. Before long it was time to get to the dinner party I had gone to Itaewon for in the first place, so I left and went to meet with the other group. The dinner was great, but ever since working out the night before, my stomach had been bothering me, so the food didn't sit very well with me. After dinner we went over to Dillingers for some St. Patty's Day to meet Frank, Brady, Jen, and Cherie, but it was real busy so I was the only one who stayed. My stay didn't last very long as my stomach grew increasingly angry at me. I stayed just long enough to have a drink and talk with them, and Angelica before getting on the 1130 subway to go home before I got sick. I made it home fine, and drank some water and Pepto before putting on a movie and getting some sleep.
After having such an early night, I got up Sunday feeling good and ready to play some hockey. I got up at 11 and got ready to meet SeJin for lunch in Kondae. It had been a while since we had hung out, and we were going to get some lunch, so I took some medication to make sure my stomach stayed in line. We met at 2pm and went for some galbi, but couldn't hang out for too long after we ate because I had to get to my 4pm hockey game. It had been raining most of the night and I wasn't even sure if we would be able to play, and when I got to the rink there were lots of guys disputing whether or not we should play for safety reasons. My captain and some other senior executive members were leading the con party, while Leahey was leading the pro argument. In the end we decided to play, and it was as dangerous as we had all predicted. There were lots of spills due to the slippery surface, and in the end we played terrible enough to lose both games rather handedly. After the I stayed to watch John's team play, and lose both games as well. After the games we rode the subway home together, then I got groceries before going home to shower and make my weekly call home.