I don't remember if I mentioned that I didn't just bruise myself really, really badly in that fall. I actually fractured a couple of ribs. The pain has made the past 9 days a genuine living hell that is impossible to convey to anyone who hasn't experienced it. I'm told that in the US, Vicodin is the standard prescription for cracked rib pain; that should give you a guage of the level of pain. Of course, I'm not in the US and I've been stuck taking ibuprofin which is basically useless crap. Wednesday night I finally got some aspirin & codiene tablets which were able to reduce the pain enough to allow me to sleep for more than 1 hour at a time. Not remove the pain, mind you, but reduce it enough that I didn't feel like I was trapped in an endless hell. Pain is so destructive to your life. It's not just a matter of enfuring it physically, it destroys you mentally. You can't think, can't sleep, can't do anything but exist in a strange horrible fog.

I'm toled fractured ribs take weeks and weeks to heal, sometimes months. I can't allow myself to believe this because I can't face the possiblity of such prolonged pain.