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Monday, May 04, 2020

A bit of an accident

Oh. My. Word.  How in the world?  I feel like a nincompoop!  

I had a bit of a bicycle accident.  Just a wee accident.
We opted to ride on the canal...most of the mountain bike trails were closed due to the rainy days preceding our ride.  The ride was great!   We saw neat things, I felt great!

I felt so good that when we made it back to the car after an hour and a half of riding we weren’t done.  So we decided to go another 3-4 miles down the canal in the opposite direction.   We reached our turn around point and we decided to ride through the picnic area.   We headed down a hill and it was great!   Until my hat flew off my head.  (Yes, I said hat and not helmet..it was an easy gentle ride on a graded flat surface, I never wear a helmet on the canal!). But, when my hat flew off my head, I jerked and lost control of the bike on a small patch of gravel. At the same time, we assume that I grabbed my left brake...front wheel brakes and locked them up....which caused me to go over the handlebars.   I remember hitting and watching my glasses bend and scrap across my face as I landed. 

You see, I flew and fell face first.  Yes.  Face first.   My bottom lip rolled back as I came to a heaping halt....filling my mouth with dirt and mud and causing lacerations and brush burns inside my mouth.  That was the first thing I noticed as soon as Jason got me untangled from my bike.  

I was shaken up.  Really bad.  Dirt covered my face.  

Why yes, as any true blogger would, I took a picture within a few minutes. I did wait until we got the blood to clot and basically stop but I snapped the pic before we cleaned my face up.  It was obvious that my eye and cheek were swelling mere moments after the accident. 

I eventually got myself up...and back onto the bike.  Why yes, I rode the 3-4 miles back to the car.  Slowly...and crying from the pain in my shoulder/chest/back the whole way.  Not sobbing just silent tears of pain.

So injuries?  
***Cut on my eye and a black eye.

***fat lip and cuts inside my mouth (thankfully my teeth remained intact with no breaks or issues)
***my right arm has a road rash (brush burn)
***bruises all up and down my right hip and leg
***minor brush burns and bruises on various parts of my body.
*** ‘something’ is wrong with my upper right quadrant’. It could be a broken/cracked rib.  It could be a pulled muscle.  It hurts to move in certain ways.  It hurts to bend over.  It hurts to cough....laugh...sneeze.   I am leaning toward a pulled muscle.  I did opt to not go to the ER.  A cracked rib or pulled muscle would just result in an official diagnosis and a bottle of pills  (which I wouldn’t take anyway).   The risks of going into an ER in the middle of a pandemic outweighed the benefits of a true diagnosis! We are watching carefully my heart rate  (which has regulated back to normal after the first 24 hours but boy was it high for quite a few hours) and my breathing (which is fine).  If anything changes I will be at the urgent care quicker than anything!  

I’m healing....slowly...the worst is the pain from the ribs/muscle/whatever.  It is debilitating.  I can’t even dress myself without gasping in pain.  Yes, Jason is dressing me.  Hahaha

The bike injuries?
*** I mangled up my grips.  I will be replacing them as soon as I can!!!  Jason has to put my chain back in place before I ride it...but she seemed to ride ok.


I’m banged up good...but I’ll be ok.   I will never again ride without my helmet.  I still would have gone down.  I would still be bruised and battered and have a fat lip.    I probably wouldn’t have a black eye though!   I also wouldn’t have come close to having some kind of major head injury.    So wear your helmets please!!!!

11 comments:

  1. That is a terrible way to learn to always wear your bike helmet! I'm glad it wasn't worse but I feel for you with your injuries, my friend. I hope you heal quickly and your upper body pain eases up. I think you made a good decision not to go to the ER - not worth exposing yourself during the pandemic. Take care.

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    1. I am telling everyone I know...wear your helmet! :-). I was lucky!

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  2. Reading this I said "ouch" more times than I can count. I'm so sorry you fell, I'm so happy you're (mostly) okay.

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    1. And in a way it is funny....even though you were saying ouch...because who else can say their lip rolled out and worked as a scoop to pick up a mouth full of dirt!!

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  3. I crashed my bike last summer. Went head over heals because I tried to ride over diagonal rail road tracks instead of just getting off the bike and walking over them. Then had to ride back to our car dripping blood from brush burns. Husband was right behind me and he tore his rotator cuff so badly he needed reverse shoulder replacement surgery. Hope you heal okay. Always wear the helmet because you never know.

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    1. I will never again go without my helmet. I had my wake up call!!!! Ouch to your injuries and your husbands also!!!!

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  4. oh my! You came up with the whole story to avoid telling us that he slapped ya huh? TEASING!!!!!! LOL

    That looks like that is super tender and just ouch! I hope that you heal quickly and are able to get back on the saddle (har har) again ASAP!!

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    1. It was a good story isn’t it! Jason didn’t know I took pictures immediately following the accident...but later told me he was glad I did because he said ‘people that don’t know me are never going to believe that I didn’t beat you up’ Lol.

      As soon as I can I’ll be riding....with a helmet!!!

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  5. I pray that you are healing in good fashion! Don't be so thrilled about helmets though, as an equestrienne I have weighed the pros and cons of helmets and come to the conclusion that I would rather be functional than a paraplegic. I know this is a controversial point of view but it is my opinion. You will heal and your beautiful contenance will return. I personally know a woman who was killed while wearing her a helmet, was thrown, and died. ...it did not save her. We have to remember to live, not just exist. Everything vital has a risk. You are a brave brave woman!!

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    1. Good pep talk for me...i am a bit nervous about going out for a ride this weekend....but I’m planning on taking a nice easy ride!!!

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  6. Thannks for writing this

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