Not The Escape We Were Looking For....Thanks Dad.

CONTENT WARNING

This post contains graphic images of head injuries, stitches and blood. This post also contains spoilers for Ultimate Roomscapes room "Mental Perception"

This is why we can't have nice things. We all decided (Myself, My mum, My dad, Two of my brothers, my sister in law and a friend visiting from Sydney) that we would all go to an escape room together. So a few days prior, we booked an escape room for seven people, and got excited for Sunday. Fast forward to 4pm Sunday evening. We are all at Ultimate Roomscape, locked in rooms working on puzzles. My family and I have done a few escape rooms before, so we had an idea of what we were getting into. If you are a horror fan or a fan of the Conjuring series like I am, I definately recommend "The Warrens" escape room at Ultimate Roomscape. Thats what we did last time and it was amazing!

This time we decided to give "Mental Perception" a try. Now to be fair, my family was a bit worried going into this room. Sometimes flashing lights trigger my seizures, and we were all going to be locked in a small room together. I personally dont do well in tight groups of people, so we were a bit cautious but we decided to give it a try anyway. We have an hour to escape by working on multiple puzzles together. We were all having heaps of fun. With about five (5) minutes left, we open a door, which causes all the lights to start flickering. I grab a hold on someone, I wasn't sure who it was, and I closed my eyes to make sure I didnt get overstimulated. A whole bunch of fake cockroaches fell from the ceiling, which if you know me, you know how much I hate cockroaches. Our family friend, LJ, and my dad go into this new room, which is pitch black, apart from a small light that can be turned on and off by someone holding a button down somewhere else in the other room we had access to. I was kneeling down, about half a metre away from the doorway my dad and LJ were in, looking at another puzzle when my dad came stumbling towards me, falling down with a large thud. I managed to catch his arm, prevent him from dislocating his shoulder, or worse, damaging the PICC line in his arm. Now remember, it was dark, we couldn't see very well. Dad got up and said he was okay, but thats when we noticed a huge gash on my dads face. Thankfully, it was on the side of my face my dad can't feel, so he didn't notice that there was a huge flap of skin hanging off, blood pouring down his face, (I guess haven't multiple surgeries and half of your face removed can be good for pain managment in some cases. Thankfully, with escape rooms, the main doors aren't locked, so we were able to get out and get dad back to the lobby. The staff at Ultimate Roomscape were amazing. They helped us bandage him up, we're not at all angry that our dad just bled all over their floor and potentially left a bit of skin behind on their door frame, and remained so calm, even though I was panicking slightly. It helped that we were able to crack a few jokes, my older brother saying that my dad just didn't want to say we lost so he thought an escape by injury should count as a win. These are the part of having a system that people don't see. To a lot of others, I may have seemed okay, apart from being a bit shaken up about seeing my dad injured. What people don't see is that chaos that rattles my brain when this sort of thing happens. When we first realised my dads injury, my mum raised her voice (not out of anger, but out of fear and trying to get dad to a safer, well lit place to assess his injuries) telling me to ask the staff for help over a walkie talkie we had been provided while in the escape room. What you can't see is at the same time that mum called for my help, I had a caretaker in our system, who acts as our nurse, trying to push through to assess dads injuries, as well as my main protector yelling at her to stop yelling at me and pushing, and then another protector who represents my dad, who was suddenly in a lot of pain, as any injuries my dad experiences, are reflected onto this alter. I instantly dropped to the floor once my parents had left the escape room, as I instantly felt lightheaded, dizzy and nauseous. My legs couldn't hold me up, and my hands were shaking so much that I couldn't even hold some keys properly that unlocked a locker with all of our belongings. These are things that no one else can experience for me. No one else can see how chaotic things get in my head when something like this happens. This might not be the case for every system in the world, but for us, situations like this trigger a lot of pushing and shoving, as there are many people who want to help, and get me out of an emotionally difficult situation.

Dads head wrapped up in a bandage before we get in the car. We were able to apply pressure to the wound, which none of us have been able to get a good look at yet, as we wanted to stop the bleeding and cover it as quickly as possible. My dad thought he was going to drive home, and my mum was not having that, so she took the wheel while dad was told to sit ever so quietly in the passenger seat. As you can see in the following photo, dad does not like being a passenger...

Dad holding on for dear life...

I promise my mum is not a bad driver. Never had a speeding ticket, never been in trouble, and drives very well for an anxious driver. I would say dad is holding on because his adrenaline is rushing from the injury, but in reality, my dad hates other people driving.

By this point, I was feeling emotionally numb. My main protector had kicked into gear and i wasn't really feeling a lot of anything. I looked down at my clothes and had realised that my pants we're covered in my dads blood, as well as my shirt where he had collided into me as he fell. I instantly looked away, not willing to think about it. We got home and my mum was quick to get my dad back in the car and to a hospital. My dad told mum that they should have a look at it at home and see if it's worth a hospital trip. Trust me, we didn't need to look. We saw enough. It was definately worth a trip. So my mum left me under the supervision of LJ, and my two younger brothers, while she took dad to the hospital. it was at this point that my adrenaline began to settle, and the emotions began to hit me. I took myself for a shower to wash my dads blood off of me, and spend at least five minutes sitting at the bottom of the shower vomitting. My head was pounding from the yelling, and I still felt nauseous from all the anxiety and adrenaline. I settled and mum started sending me updates from the hospital. Thankfully the hospital realised it was a serious situation and got to seeing him quite quickly. In the short time they were waiting, my dad looked all too proud of himself for his stunt work.

My dad, who has officially been nicknamed "Numb Skull"

At first, an intern came to have a look at my dads injuries, but promptly left after hearing the extent of my dads medical history, which was very relevent for two main reasons. One - My dad split open the side of his face that he can not feel due to the countless surgeries. We don't knowhow much of a chunk he sliced off, or what is exposed underneath it.

Two - My dad still has hyperbaric treatment. We can not afford to have any dangerous material, that may cause him to be unable to go to his treatments. The intern quickly got another doctor, who happened to be the head (no pun intended) of the department. Lets just say, even she was shocked. She wasn't sure what to do. Normally, in cases like this, they would want to do surgery to clean the wound, but that would be a hospital stay that my parents can not afford, considering this would be a third hospital that would have to coordinate with two other hospitals. One for surgery. One for antibiotics. One for the hyperbaric team. That was not happening. So they decided to numb my dads wound, flush it to try to clean it as best as they can, and then dress it. My dad did not slice his face., he tore it. Torn skin is not a clean cut. It is much hard to reattached. WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGES

The first two image are what was underneath the bandage. The third image showers how it looked after it was flushed. That entire chunk was flapping in the breeze, completely torn away from his face, exposing muscle.

Safe to say, my dad did a number on himself, so much so that the doctors used glue, steri strips, AND stitches to try to hold it all together.

My dad stitched, glued and patched up My dad is going to end up with an epic scar to match the others he already has. All I can really say is that, at least it is on the left side and isn't interfering with the one side of his face that is still intact. I honestly think the grim reaper has thrown just about everything at my dad at this point, and I have come to the conclusion that my dad is invicible and will someone walk out of almost every scenario, with just a few bumps and scraps. (That is not a challenge for the universe.) Honestly dad, there were much better ways to get us out of that escape room, but in your true fashion, you had to go big and ensure everyones attention was on you. We are all watching. You don't have a single person not looking at you now. Once again, a family outing that we will not forget anytime soon. Everyone, hug your dads a little tighter tonight, because mine is going to be in the sin bin with my mum for a bit for spiking her anxiety. Their marriage has truly been testing by everything and at the end of the night, they still went to bed with my dad laughing and making silly jokes, and my mum rolling her eyes and scoffing at him. If nothing else, at least we know they love each other.

I See You. I Hear You. I Love You.