If you are wondering what "Ow" means in English, it's the same as "Ai" in Finnish. It's what you say when something hurts. I am hurting all over this evening, and this post will be very short as I can hardly type!
This evening was the last orienteering session of 2012 (the Torstairastit) and Liisa, Ella and I decided to go to celebrate the end of the season. The terrain this time was pretty rough and we had to fight our way though a lot of heavy undergrowth to get from one point to the next. Still, we made it, and eventually the final flags were in sight. Everything was going fine and I was thinking to myself how I was pleased I was that I had avoided being a) bitten by a snake, b) attacked by deer flies. If you have never heard of deer flies (hirvikäpänen in Finnish) it's a relatively innocent looking insect, rather like a small fly, but which can cause a lot of damage. If you get stung by one then it can cause a nasty infection and I had been warned that there were a lot of them around this evening in the forest where we were.
Anyway, at about eighty metres from the finnish, I suddenly fell badly, and ended up hitting my head so hard on the ground ( or maybe the root of a tree) that for a while I couldn't get up and I though I was going to lose consciousness. When I finally realised what had happened I noticed that I had also cut both my leg and my arm in the fall. The others had not seen what happened at this point, so eventually I managed to stumble to the finish line which thankfully wasn't far away, and once I was there I pretty much collapsed! Someone arrived with a cold compress for the massive bump which was developing on my head and after a few mintues Liisa drove me to the health centre.The doctor saw me and laughed! He said that I was "in fashion" as I was about the seventh person that day who had appeared following a head injury of some sort, although I was the only one who had been injured while orienteering. I think at the time I was still covered in bits of stick from the forest and probably had flies in my hair. Stylish.
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| Not Somero's greatest sportswoman.... |
So - this was our eventful end to the orienteering season. I really finished the course in style! Seriously though, it was one of those moments when it felt so nice to be among friends. I am really grateful to both Liisa and Ella for looking after me so well, as well as to the staff at the health centre. Liisa took a picture of me looking my very worst. My computer will not let me post it at the moment but I will do so tomorrow so you can see what a state I was in!
That's it for now... I .can't type anymore! Hope you sleep well -- until tomorrow!
3 comments:
Dear me! Poor Jody! As they in Finnish "Urheilija ei tervettä päivää näe" came true. Hugs (gently)
Ooooh oh dear! Don't you love the finnish doctors who remind you all the time that even if things look bad from your perspective, there's still always a funny side?
I went to the terveyskeskus once because I believed I had a cardiac arrest... which turned out to be sore muscles between my ribs! I can still hear the young doctor gasping for breath as he was laughing and I couldn't laugh along because it hurt! ;)
I am an outdoor person dealing with farm animals all day and I cannot count the incidents where I have fallen while catching a sheep, dropped something on my foot, been dragged around by a horse, fallen off a horse or been bitten by wild animals that didn't want to be "saved" by the stupid biologist.
So my deepest sympathy from me, lots of healing thoughts and maybe just a little bit of laughter, because your writing reminds me so much of myself and my numerous accidents.
You're a true veteran now and next year I'll maybe come along and be there to catch you. :D
Comme on dit chez nous : tu n'as pas fait les choses à moitié ;o) Bon rétablissement et bon courage.
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