As if my life didn’t have enough excitement in it already, I had to do something stupid.
This Saturday, we had planned for a trek through the woods to one of our favorite spots, The Waterfall.
There is a river up in the mountains behind Neihu that pools at a particular spot that we call The Waterfall. Last summer, my friend Steve had taken
me up to the waterfall to get away from the city and swim. We also jumped off a high place about thirty feet above the pool of water.
Standing above the water, my feet were hesitant. It takes real courage to make that leap of faith.
I would conquer my fears and eventually jump five times from that special place during my one waterfall visit last summer. It’s the kind of feeling that I live to experience
– the same one you get when you ride a roller coaster, become frightened all of a sudden, jump out of an airplane, or experience a life-threatening moment. ADRENALINE. I love it.
Now comes this year. Another chance at the waterfall. I had been looking forward to this adventure since I last enjoyed it. It was one of the highlights of my time in Taiwan last summer.
We awoke somewhat early for a Saturday morning at 9:00 AM. I took a bus to my friend Bob the Canadian’s house to ride with him on his scooter to go to the waterfall. A couple other friends joined us – Steve, Phil, Jon, and Eli. Later we would hang out with Ann, May and Bob’s little son, Silas.We parked the scooters at the trail-head and made our usual trek through the woods to the waterfall. We were very blessed to have a beautiful day. But like always in Taiwan, it was hot and humid. I was already sweating by the time we had gotten to the part of the trail where we broke off and walked a somewhat secret path to the waterfall. To get from the trail to the waterfall, we had to walk through a man’s house. It was just a dilapidated, run-down shack, if it could even be called that. One wild man lived there… He didn’t say anything to us while we passed through.
After a small amount of tricky climbing, we reached the waterfall! It looked even bigger than I remember. It had a cool, refreshing smell that the city lacked accompanied by a cool breeze.
By this time, my shirt was suck to my back and my anticipation for the waterfall was growing. I was here. The water peacefully flowed down the river. It looked like a waterslide but I dare not try to slide down.I quickly set down my things, took off my socks, shoes and shirt, and got into the water. Aw…. Nirvana. The waterfall is like something out of a movie. It’s about twenty feet by twenty feet and in the middle the water is deep. I mean deep deep. It is so deep that we can climb up to a high point of about 30 feet and jump in safely. Although there is plenty of space available to jump, we still have to be careful about landing in the middle. You can imagine how devastating an over-jump can be – I can tell you from first-hand experience.
After spending some time in the water, Phil and I anxiously climbed up to ledge where which we jump. It looked even higher than I had remembered.
I was completely prepared for this moment. My blood pressure rose and my heart was beating faster. I had to totally shut off my brain to make my body jump of this cliff. To do something like this requires a total absence of human nature. My feet pushed off the edge and I soared through the air. I dropped quickly down to the water…. And rocks. I suppose it was too much adrenaline. I had over-jumped. I landed in the water but hit rocks soon after. My left ankle hit first, collapsing under the pressure of my force. Next, my left knee came crashing down and took the brunt of the fall. My whole left leg went numb and I surfaced. 
I could really feel much, which is not a surprise considering the level of adrenaline I had pumping through my body. I swam slowly back to the area where we were sitting with our things. I was fine at first. My body didn’t really feel much. I check both my knee and ankle immediately. My ankle looked fine at first and would eventually be fine except for some bruises.
My knee, however, was not. I had gashed my left knee open. A piece of skin about the size of a penny was missing from my kneecap. I could see down to my bone. I move the skin on my knee around, seeing my bone through the hole. Eventually, it started bleeding and it wouldn’t stop. My kneecap was sore as well. Fortunately, I was fine apart from these injuries. I could have broken a leg or been injured more seriously. I am very thankful.
Phil jumped down off the ledge and splashed into the water. Why couldn’t I just do that?
I sat on the rock examining my wounds. I patted the blood away with Kleenex and wrapped it tight with a towel. It didn’t really hurt except for when I bent my knee. I think my adrenaline was still killing the pain. Although it was hard for me to agree to, we decided it best if I didn’t jump off the rock anymore today. Phil and Jon each jumped a couple of more times before we decided to leave. I got up and climbed on my own out of there. I walked the whole trail back to. This was the first time that my knee really hurt.
We retreated back to Bob’s house to hang out and clean my wounds. My walk was more like a limp now.
Back at Bob’s, he cleaned out my wound thoroughly with hydrogen peroxide. It stung pretty bad but it was more than necessary. White foam kept bubbling up as Bob poured small amounts over my knee. My knee was slightly elevated and my leg stiff. The other guys went out to grab food and got some to go for me. When Bob was finished dressing my wound, he gave me a Taiwanese style healing. .
This had nothing to do with my knee, we were just having some fun. First, he put some balm stuff on my shoulders and back. It felt like boiling water was being poured on my shoulders. He then put these suction cup type things on my back to suck out all the bad toxins from my skin. It looks really weird when it happens. My skin was being sucked really hard on my back, creating pressure that weighed my down. 
It’s like a bunch of huge hickeys on your back My skin was turning red, dark red, bright red, and purple in some parts making huge bumps on my back. It can be very intimidating for someone to see this for the first time. I had seen this down last year at a night market but had never had it done to me. Afterwards, I felt very tired but relaxed as well. It was a good distraction from my battle wound.When the other guys had gotten back, I ate my food of noodles and tofu. My leg was being elevated with another chair. Bob said that we needed to get stitches for it.
It was like a cut on the skin. An actual area of my skin was missing so stitches would have to pull my other skin over that area and close it off. I was resilient at first because I didn’t have any traveler’s insurance and thought that I would be fine without the stitches. But Bob convinced me that stitches would be the best thing. Phil had left earlier, and Steve had a prior engagement (and a problem with blood). So Bob took me to the hospital. It was Saturday night so the only part that was open was the emergency room.
We checked-in at the counter and Bob filled out some paperwork. I was put into a wheelchair to keep pressure off my leg. I still had to hobble around when I walked so this was definitely a nice relief.
I was looked at by a doctor in the emergency room. He removed the bandaging that Bob had put on. It hurt because the tape was stuck to some of my leg hair.
He checked to make sure my kneecap wasn’t fractured. Although it was sore, praise God it was alright. It was just a little bruised. Bob was busy telling all the hospital staff about how crazy I was. I couldn’t stop laughing. They were all laughing too. They couldn’t believe that I would jump from so high. 
I was wheel-chaired into a surgery room where instructed to lie down on the bed. I was first given a small anesthetic that, I swear, didn’t work. They jabbed the needle right into my wound and I yelled a bit. Thank you God for giving me a strong pain tolerance because it was in full use today!
Next, they cleaned my wound out. They used this larger syringe that held water in it. It was pushed down into my wound and then squirted water out. It cleaned a lot of the blood out. I’m glad Bob was there because we both just kept making jokes and laughing, although it hurt a lot.
Finally, it was time for the stitches. I stopped watching at this point but later got to see the pictures, and even video, that Bob took with my camera. I just looked straight up, and sometimes even closed my eyes, as they violently sewed the hole in my knee shut. It was probably the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Bob joked about the doctors hurrying up so that we could go dancing.
He told me stories to keep my mind off the pain. I think the worst part was when the blood would gush out of my knee and the doctor would forcefully pat it dry. The pressure was just excruciating.
When it was all said and done, I was wheel back to the front desk to get my bill and prescription. It was surprisingly cheap at only 1300 NT, which is like $45 US. I was given an ointment to put on the wound and some pain killers that I really needed before they worked on me. I walked on my own out of the hospital with a limp in my step. I’m sure I’ll heal fine. I took a taxi home and just took it easy.
I thank God for protecting me today. Count your blessings.
It could have been much worse for me. Thank you, Bob, for your help, love and support today. Thanks to all the other guys on the trip for helping me out and praying for. Thanks to the dudes at the hospital who worked on me. Most important, thanks to the Man upstairs. He saved me again.
Moral of the story: Don’t over-jump your leap of faith.
