Injuries in Iceland

The night of the fall..

I think I was feeling more shocked than painful with my injuries from that roll down the hill at about 10:15pm on that evening, day 5 of our trip to Iceland.


Back in our room in Gerdi Guesthouse, I asked for an Ice pack from the kitchen.  That very helpful Icelandic man smiled, when Adrian asked for an ice pack, and said: "Well, we might not have an ice pack because ice is available anywhere on the ground outside."
But he eventually did get us a very good ice pack, which I used to ice the injuries that night.

Swollen left little finger on the night of 3rd Mar 2014.

My left little finger was swollen and very stiff.  And I kept looking at it and tried flexing it.  I couldn't move much.  The swelling and bruising was getting more.  There should have been more pain than what I was experiencing at that point in time.  But I guessed the freezing weather must have had numbed it.

Even the palmar surface had bruising, that night.

The left ankle was really busted.  Over the hours, it just swelled up.  There was worsening bruising on the medial and lateral aspects and it became very stiff.  I hadn't had an ankle swelling for more than 20 years.  And I thought this time I really twisted it badly.

 At that point in time the left big toe was just painful. Over the next few days the subungal haematoma would become more obvious.  And the whole left big toe nail became black.  It was really funny. A fall like this would give rise to injuries all over the body which weren't apparent in the first instance, but only to surface later on.

The next morning, 4th March 2014.
I woke up and examined my injuries again.  The left hand was much more swollen than the night before.  So was the left ankle.  I crepe-bandaged both up.  Thankfully Eddy had a couple of pairs of disposable chopsticks which I used as a splint to splint up the left little finger.  That became my life saviour for the next 6 days, until I returned to Singapore.

More swollen left ankle the next morning.

Even more swollen left little finger on the 4th Mar, the morning after the fall.

Really lucky for me, Eddy's two pairs of disposable chopsticks saved my life.  I used them as splints, and for the next 6 days, my left hand was wrapped up like this.  Couldn't put them in intrinsic plus position because the chopsticks couldn't be bent obviously, and couldn't buddy splint with the ring finger for if I were to do that then I would not be able to wear my gloves, which would be an agony in the deep cold.

Back in Singapore...

We arrived back home on the evening of the 9th March 2014.
On the morning of 10th March, I saw my good friend Lee Haw Chou, the orthopaedic surgeon.  X rays done showed a fracture left 6th rib, and a displaced fracture left little finger metacarpal neck.

Fractured left 6th rib

Displaced fracture of my left little finger metacarpal.

MRI of my left ankle showed a totally torn Anterio Talo-fibular ligament, and deltoid ligament.  Looked like my attempt at my Duathlon, Triathlon, OCBC cycle - all of which I had signed up for - were gone.




























CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO THE PREVIOUS POST - Day 5


CLICK HERE BELOW TO CONTINUE TO THE NEXT CHAPER: Iceland Day 6 ~ Racing against time in the Ice Cave, skirting the Svinasfelljokull, revisiting Jokulsarlon & a magnificent BANG! of Aurora!!