What an experience. First and foremost, I loved meeting so many great people. Had so much fun teaching dance and laughing with all of you. I hope Olivia will have me back sometime in the future. Any input to Olivia from any of you would be greatly appreciated. I hated not being able to say good-bye and thank all of you for makign me feel like part of the Olivia family. I would love to hear from many of you. My personal email address is toni.ralston@piedmont.org.
I have had my motorcycle license sine I was 16 and have riden motorcycles and scooters my whole life. If fact, that is my summer transportation in Atlanta. Only problem is that I never learn to jump caved in roads at a moment notice. Basically the road had collapsed over a drainage pipe and I hit the hole with the scooter. Thankfully we were only going about 15-20 mph.
All three of us went down but I knew as soon as I hit the ground I knew I was injured. A couple locals called the police and Doctor. Jo and Sherre were banged up but they were able to get up. I was is a lot of pain and was having trouble breathing. Jo politely covered my arm with a towel without telling me I had a 6 inch gash that was bleeding pretty badly. The ambulance was a Nissan something. They put me in a neck brace on a backboard and off I went to the infirmary.
They had an x-ray machine but no one to read the x-rays so they wouldn't let me move. I basically laid flat on my back for 24 hours. They knew I had fractured my ribs but had a possibility of broken clavicle and neck injuries. If I moved and punctured a lung, I would have been screwed so I wasn’t allowed to move. Jo brought dinner and breakfast and fed me as I stared at the ceiling. Thank God for pain medication. They couldn’t get me to Nassau that evening because of the Hurricane so I had to remain still until the following morning. Jo went with me to go to Nassau. She really proved herself to be a great friend. I was so lucky to have her there. We tried to get me on the regular flight out Saturday morning but it was against FAA regulations to put a stretcher on the plane so I had to be LifeFlighted out to Nassau.
Once x-rays were taken they found I had “quite a few fractures on 3 ribs” but there was no displacement. They wanted to keep me overnight at a cost of $10,000. I said I was leaving and they asked if I would stay if they lowered the cost to $7000. NO JOKE!!!!! I said if the Bahamian people can afford $10000 a night, I needed to move to the Bahamas because I certainly don’t make that kind of money in the US. I checked myself out against Doctors orders and headed to the airport with a lot to pain medication. Got back to Atlanta at midnight and my girlfriend picked us up.
Spent all last week in a lazy boy chair with my girlfriend taking care of me, I am so lucky she works out of her home. Got my 12 stitches out on Monday and am doing pretty well. I will go back to work next week. Unfortunately I can’t teach dance for a few weeks.
Again - Thak you all for making that week such a wonderful experience. If you are ever coming to Atlanta, shoot me an email.
Here is a link to an article Jo wrote about the experience. http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/blog/travel/1466-travel-9-tips-i-tell-clients-but-forgot-to-follow-or-what-i-learned-on-my-fall-vacation
Toni toni.ralston@piedmont.org