After a late night ride home on the night bus, we got to bed around 3am. I woke up at 8am to get ready to meet Shannon at the Van Gogh museum, before anyone else in the apartment was awake. Everyone here is really tall, and the house is built for them. So I had to climb up on the counter to get the cereal for my breakfast. In the shower, I was reaching up to adjust the shower head when it slipped and fell and hit my head. I went to pick it up and saw in the reflection of the hand held showerhead that I was bleeding. A lot. So I started to freak out. I finished my shower and woke up my host, Ilona, for help. We looked at it and we were worried because although the cut on my cheek wasn’t deep, it was wide. She offered to call her doctor and got an appointment for me in 20 minutes.

Sara got up with all the noise and saw me and said, “Did I do that to you?!? In my sleep?!” I told her now, I got hit by the shower head. Sara called and texted Shannon while we got ready to go.

I took a quick pic:

We went to the doctor, who said it would need stitches. That’s when I lost it and started crying, being upset about getting stitches in my face in a foreign country when I’m supposed to be performing at the festival. I remembered advice my mom gave me the last time I got stitches: the doctor is okay, the dermatologist is better, and the plastic surgeon is best. I was scared about getting a scar, so I asked the doctor if he would refer me to a plastic surgeon. I felt very vain and very american, but it’s my face so whatever. He said he could take care of it himself and there was no guarantees with a surgeon, but he wouldn’t try to convince me to let him treat me. Then he called the hospital to refer me to the surgeon and gave me a letter to give them at the hospital. Then his intern cleaned it up and covered the wound.

We took the metro to the hospital and when we checked in at the emergency room the receptionist was fairly rude, told us there were lots of traumas that day and she couldn’t tell us when we would be helped, but that it would be a long time. I tried to settle in for a long wait in the ER, but a nurse called us back in about 20 minutes. She said it was a good cut because it was a clean line along the grain of my skin: better for healing. But it probably needed stitches. So I waited some more in the exam room and sulked.

Then a surgical nurse came in with great news: they could glue it closed! No stitches! I was so relieved. Then the surgeon came in and glued it shut and I could barely feel it.

Afterwards Sara took me to a bakery and we got some well deserved treats.

I’m resting up this afternoon and skipping the classes. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow if I’m ready to do the show. The Doctor said to keep it try for 2 days, leave the bandage on as long as possible and not put anything on it. So Sara and I are hanging out at the apartment, watching Jersey Shores and hanging out until we go to the theater for dinner tonight.

Sara and Ilona were such big helps today and I am so grateful to be with them.