Here’s one sign…  You wake up after having broken face surgery and the first thing you do is have your husband take pictures of your hospital room.

Okay, so it wasn’t REALLY the first thing I did, but that definitely did happen.

Back story: So about a month and a half ago I decided, hey, writing a motorbike for the first time ever after not even driving a car for six months sounds like a great idea. In Cambodia. So I was trying to turn and I kind of face-planted in a ditch that was about 6 feet deep according to my poor, probably slightly traumatized brother. FYI: Cambodia is not the most medically advanced country in the world. But I did get an ambulance ride, a private room (which was combination supply closet), and pretty comprehensive treatment for what they had there. Never mind that no one spoke English and I had a concussion and apparently stitches and no memory of what happened for about an hour. On the plus side, all that, only $130 USD lol.

Anyway, so I went to a public hospital in Singapore because, you know, I had some kind of stitches in my leg (not sure if dissolvable or not) and I obviously hit my head and face and had a concussion. The doctor was like, why are you here? You were treated in Cambodia. And I said, yeah exactly, and my face is still weird and my teeth are numb. So he took some x-rays at my insistence and determined there was fluid in my face and he couldn’t see anything. Okay, awesome. Then he made me an appointment with a plastic surgeon like a month later. Why? I don’t know lol. So this was end of July.

Then last week, I had a filling issue. I went to see my dentist at a private hospital and got my filling fixed then mentioned, hey my teeth are still numb and my face is weird. He had me get a CT scan THAT DAY. And apparently my face was broken in two places. The bone under my eye and the top of my jaw. Which is why all my nerves were messed up. Thanks awesome Singapore public hospital jerk ER doctor for NOT catching that and NOT suggesting, hey maybe we should get you a CT scan to be sure. Fast forward from end of July to first week of September. Had CT scan and was in for surgery less than 48 hours later (this Saturday). Apparently my face was actually broken in THREE places, the side of my jaw, too. Extra props to that awesome first Singapore ER doctor for completely missing the fact that my face was broken in three places and not bothering to give me a follow-up appointment until the end of August, which then was pushed back to the second week of September. My face should have been operated on within two weeks not six. So gold star for you, Singapore Public Hospital that shall remain nameless but happens to be located on Alexandra Road. Gleneagles, you were amazing! Saved the day! Thank God I have medical insurance, that’s all I’ll say.

ANYYYYWAY so now I’m recovering and I’ll be fine. I like to look at the positive of things. So for this, it was getting the inside scoop on being in the hospital! In Hooligans, one of the characters ends up “in hospital,” but I’d never been a patient admitted to a hospital. So I got to go into an “operating theatre,” emerge from general anesthesia, play with the bed and the remote, eat crappy hospital food, have my blood pressure checked every hour, listen to the sounds of the hospital, and have an IV drip and all that. Now I can incorporate it into my story and make the hospital scenes even more real!

Here’s a few snapshots….

So this may be a sign that I’m a bit too committed to being authentic in my writing lol…. And that I should never ride a motorbike again.

Writer What lengths have you gone to in order to get your story accurate? Do you ever wonder if you get a bit overcommited?