Narrow Escape from Significant Injury

So, I was skiing last week - a cheeky pre-season excursion to Val d'Isere. A great trip, although slightly marred on the Friday by quite a tumble. I was sober, and not showing off, although going pretty quick. I don't know if my ski caught some weird combination of conditions (the snow on the side of the piste was a bit choppy and gravelly) or I managed to cross the tips - whatever, I was instantly popped out of my bindings and flung, bang, straight at the deck. You know people report time slows down in such situations? Not this time - I didn't realise anything had happened until I was getting to my feet feeling a bit weird. I wasn't sure quite what had occurred, but thought I had busted my nose, as claret was dripping onto the pure white snow. My fellow skiers soon arrived, and the verdict was my eye was in a bad way. Indeed it was. It was horrific. I only saw it a while later once we'd stopped for lunch...it looked deformed. Fortunately, my vision was fine, and I hadn't lost consciousness or anything, and my skiing

The photo abive is of said eye 2 days later when the swelling had gone down massively. Now the swelling's gone completely, and it's only the red in the eye which looks rather unpleasant. I had it checked out when I returned to the UK (an excellent service at St George's in Wandsworth - saw a nurse within 20 minutes, and a doctor less than 30 minutes after that, was in and out in an hour total) and was informed the red in the eye was jut bruising, nothing was broken or worrying, and all should be back to normal in about 2 weeks. Huzzah.

What have I learned from this? Mainly that I'm lucky this wasn't a worse outcome, and that I should wear a helmet, or at least stick to goggles. The injury came from my metal-framed Ray-Bans being bent and pressed into my eye socket. Ugh. The glasses are ok - bent back fine, but if the lenses had popped out or broken, it would have been very ugly indeed. Don't wear metal sunglasses on the slopes!

I intend to put this new learning into practice at my next skiing jaunt in 4 weeks time.