Croc Watch & Stitches! (Unrelated)

Okay!

I have had a bit of an eventful week since I got back from holiday! Let me fill you in.

The weekend was the most boring part:
Saturday I did work the whole day so I would be able to go out with my friends visiting from Townsville that night. Sunday I lounged around the whole day and caught up on my favorite TV shows that I had missed while I was away. I went to bed early because I had dingo early in the morning.

Monday I woke up at 3:30 am so Liz could pick me up at 4 am for fieldwork. I liked this site. It was easy cane to walk through, nothing like the last one. It was a cool and comfortable morning. We didn't catch as much in the cane, probably because it was sparser than normal, however we did catch a lot in the forest! Lot's of cute melomys. There was an especially cute one with white spots that Liz had caught before and named Bambi. Just catching, weighing, measuring and tagging, the usual. We got through it pretty quickly and I was back to sleep by 9:30 am. The rest of the day I did work on my major essays I have coming up.

Tuesday was a rather eventful day. I went to the zoo, like usual. The morning went normal, the usual feeding and cleaning of the lizards and frogs, followed by the rat room. The afternoon, after lunch, is when things got interesting. A new crocodile arrived, from Hartley's, a crocodile place up the road. Her name was Oprah. She weighed over 200 kg and was over 3.5 meters long. Awesome I know. This is where the cool part comes in. I basically lived through an episode of Crocodile Hunter. She arrived in on a stretcher of sorts, she was strapped down, sedated, her mouth was taped shut, and her eyes were covered. I got to help carry her to her new enclosure!!!!!!!!! We picked her up off the truck and carried her to where she would be staying with her new boyfriend, Zac, who made her look petite. They obviously couldn't let me into the enclosure since he was there but before they lifted her in I got to touch her! I held up her tail and her foot, and pet her stomach, (surprisingly soft). Imagine being up close with a croc like that! Incredible experience. I then got to watch them take off all her straps, and then, just like the show, it took two of them to sit on her back while they took off the tape and ropes on her mouth. Then I handed them the syringes which had the stuff to wake her back up. After that I was put on croc watch and had to wait for her to wake up. It took nearly a half an hour but when she did she went right in the water and her and Zac immediately started mating. They wasted no time on that! Then I took some time to exercise one of the black headed pythons on the lawn before being put back on croc watch to make sure Zac wasn't too aggressive with her. Too bad that wasn't the most eventful part of my day......

That night I was hanging with my friends. I was walking around barefoot and stepped on a large piece of glass. I didn't even notice at first but all of the sudden I look down and my foot is profusely bleeding. There are two long deep gashes in the arch of my right foot. I'm bleeding all over the place and my friends tell me I'm going to need stitches. So before I know it I'm being carried to the car and traveling to the 24 hour clinic in Cairns. The doctor sees me fairly quickly, and I am given some seriously painful shots of anesthetic in my foot. 11 stitches later and I'm free to go. (Not before paying a solid $230 bill). I'm lucky I didn't rip any tendons the cuts were so deep. Just enough to tear some nerves that will keep my big toe tingling for the next 6-12 months. Stuck on crutches for the next two weeks. This same day I also bought my non-refundable ticket to Sydney for next weekend. Guess I'll be doing the city in a wheelchair! I really am so so lucky though it wasn't any worse.

Wednesday morning was thankfully a public holiday, Anzac Day, so I slept in. I wake up and take one step out of bed, feeling kind of dizzy. I take another step and a pool of blood appears below my foot. I keep walking, more dripping more puddles, as I feel myself nearly passing out I bang on my roommates door telling her to come out. She finds my lying on the floor, still conscious, near large puddles of blood. I figure my stitches have somehow ripped open, and we don't know what else to do, so she calls 000 (the equivalent of 911). They promptly arrive and take off my bandage and assure me that my stitches have not ripped open, but that I cannot be walking on my foot anymore. They clean me up give me a new bandage and are soon on their way. I know it seems unnecessary for them to have come, but believe me, at the time it was pretty scary.
I spent the rest of the day relaxing and alternately either being in extreme pain from my foot, or extremely sick from the codeine. Chinese and chocolate were obviously on the menu. I don't know what I would have done without my roommates to help me!

Today I did work and rested. I went to see the doctor across the street to get all the information I needed and to pick up a pair of crutches. I even made my way to dinner at the dining hall! Tomorrow will be much of the same, relaxing and working on my papers. Class is not possible at the moment but I should be back next week. Sadly no dingo fieldwork or zoo either :( .... or camping at Fitzroy island this weekend :( :(

Well that was my exciting week! Hopefully it continues to get more boring.