Christmas Already? Not for us...

It appears to be Christmas here in the Philippines after noting most shopping centers are already displaying Christmas décor and playing Christmas tunes. But we don’t feel so cheery after our little mishap…

In reference to motorcycle accidents, I’ve heard the following quoted a number of times: “It’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen it’s a matter of when it is going to happen”. To sum things up, we found our when.
Encouraging Lori to learn how to ride a motorbike with a manual transmission, I jumped on the back and handed her the controls. I figured it was time for the third lesson. She’s mastered riding an automatic motorcycle in Bali and quickly learned how to drive a stick shift in our rental car. In my lack of teaching, I didn’t say much about dirt roads, and you guessed it- we shortly found ourselves backtracking on a dirt road after overshooting our destination. As if riding a motorcycle on a dirt road with slick tires wasn’t already against better judgment, I was encouraging Lori to drive faster, but fortunately she didn’t listen to me. As we were cresting a hill of rock and gravel, we rounded a corner a little too sharp causing the handlebars to turn sideways and sending us flying off into the highly-uncomfortable surface.

We remember the event in slow motion. After landing I was thinking, boy this is going to hurt, I sure hope Lori’s alright. I turned to Lori to see her pulling her foot from underneath the bike and noticing her to have quite a gravel rash to match mine. I was relieved to see her also being able to stand up and walk around, even if it was in a daze. Repeatedly telling ourselves to just chill, it’s ok, I sat Lori down and had a local help me move the motorbike off the road. While doing so, I burned my other leg on the exhaust muffler after my left leg had just healed days before from a prior muffler burn. But, that was the least of my concerns. Thinking we were on a desolate stretch of road, neighbors began turning out from the woodwork. One brought us water to clean our wounds, while another offered to call the ambulance. Now, not being one to abuse the ambulance service, I quickly turned down the offer.

After composing ourselves and rinsing our injuries, we hobbled back on and carefully rode to the nearby health clinic. With great discomfort, they thoroughly cleaned our wounds with some peroxide and iodine. I felt very badly for Lori who appeared to be in great pain.


Not having another way home, we again hobbled back on our motorbike and slowly made our way back down the mountain. Thinking our day’s adventure had finally come to an end, we settled back down for some pizza in our hostel. Before we could eat one slice or even dress our wounds, I found myself catching Lori as she passed out. If that wasn’t enough of a surprise, one minute later as I was helping her back from the bathroom, she collapsed in my arms again. Not having an ammonia tablet for her nose, I found myself blowing in her face and calling out to her awaiting her to regain consciousness. Thankfully this wasn’t the first time I’ve witnessed syncopal events and had people collapsing in my arms. Not being one to abuse the ambulance service, the nice hostel staff helped us down the stairs to catch a taxi to the hospital.

Eliminating most possible causes for a syncopal event, two of the few causes remaining on the list in my mind weren’t too favorable (brain injury, hemorrhage) and couldn’t be determined without the aid of an ultrasound or catscan. Our woes were not over… the on duty ER Doc couldn’t locate another Dr to read the images. Apparently he wasn’t qualified to read a scan. Finally three hours later, he found a surgeon that could read. Knowing that a brain hemorrhage is often inoperable and praying fervently this was not the case, we were all relieved to see the catscan and x-ray. The surgeon didn’t feel an ultrasound was as necessary as spending the night- so we ended up renting two rooms that evening (a hostel room and a hospital room). The surgeon was unable to diagnose what caused Lori to become unconscious, but I’m sure keeping a close eye on her. So far, the only problem seems to be constipation.

Unfortunately we didn’t remember to take a picture in the moment, but finally remembered at the clinic. But look who’s in the wheelchair now!


Above all, we thank the Lord we are alive and able to walk, given the circumstances.