It's fast. And then you're on the ground. Moments later I was surrounded by people with medical skills watching over me and letting me know I wasn't alone. I didn't lose consciousness and afterwards people told me I was apologizing for the disturbance and inconvenience. Sounds about right.
My nervous system did a pretty neat thing. Immediately, it gave me only a dial tone rather than pain. I knew I needed to stay still but had no idea how injured I might be. I was breathing through a bloody nose so knew I had hit my face at some point. The paramedics arrived in no time, bundled me onto a gurney, and wheeled me out to their ambulance. The ride to Harborview was quick and uneventful and I was thinking, 'hmmm maybe it's not so bad.'
Maybe not. The good news is my spinal cord was not impacted, I didn't injure my brain, and I have 100% access to my nervous system, so I am one lucky dude. The bad news I did pretty serious damage to both feet, ankles, and shins, backbone, both wrists and forearms. I landed at sort of a 45 degree angle feet first, then butt, then hands and finally face, . . . as I must have been looking over my shoulder to see whether there was someone below me.
Once at Harborview I was able to make several phone calls to let people know I wouldn't be able to meet certain commitments later that day and that weekend. Marijane got the first call of course letting her know what had happened and where I was and that I was ok but not so ok. Next I called an afternoon meeting appointment to let them know I probably wouldn't be able to make it. Finally I called a climbing friend to let them know the situation and the likelihood that I wouldn't be able to make our planned climb that weekend. I still didn't know how serious the injuries were and was probably in total denial.
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