art surgery in a virtual world

This post about a virtual motorcycle accident prompted me to blog about a real one.

It was when I found myself hospitalised for the first time in RL that I had a mindblowing SL/RL experience.

On August 8 I was in a motorbike accident which shattered my left wrist. I was due to fly out to the US that weekend for a weeks work on a Second Life related film project but almost before I hit the ground, it was pretty clear that I was not going to make that trip.

In the ambulance I spoke to the director of the film and I mailed my closest friend in Second Life (thx to the iPhone). The next 24 hours of pain, morphine, an operation under general anaesthetic and then more morphine went by in a blur, but throughout it I was in contact with loved ones in both worlds.

I had visits from RL friends and relatives, and one morphine induced(?) visit from someone from Second Life... Of course only the real life friends brought me stuff to eat... but news kind of spreads faster in the metaverse so I had a lot of messages.

After my departure from RL hospital and re-entry to Second Life (to jokes about one handed typing of course), I was given a prim plaster cast and sling by virtual world artist AuraKyo Insoo. Kean Kelly wrote on it in marker pen and alpha channel, transforming it straight away into something really... well... special.

Then, yesterday, four Yip, an amazingly talented Second Life artist dropped a new plaster cast on me. I was speechless.

It contains textures from well wishers in my Second Life... and is beautifully put together in a way totally NPIRL (Not Practical in Real Life:), complete with string, prim mice, flowers and butterflies. I was speechless.

It's not a lifesaving treatment but... I really feel I have been treated 

It is the sweetest thing that anyone could have done, with much appreciated contributions from Second Life and flickr friends: Kean, Jaja Lubitsch, Naxxos Loon, Roslin Petion and Vint Falken. 

Thank you :)