My mechanic is not an EMT

So, yesterday I needed to pick up the Mazda at AAMCO, on Coloma.  Thinking, "Hey, it's a nice warm day, I'll just mosey over there on the bike real slow and it'll take me like an hour no worries." So I grab my wallet and my keys and think, "Hey, you know it's pretty warm out here, I need a hair cut, I don't want to overheat in the helmet, so I'll just go slow." So I put on some bike shoes and shorts and a jersey and hit the trail, leaving the helmet and gloves at home.

I haven't been on this bike in over a year.  And in that time, I've lost about 40 lbs. The first thing I noticed was just how fast this bike is. So, I'm just moseying along, doing 12 - 13 miles and hour at very low effort, and I get on the trail at River Bend Park, and just start cruising at a comfortable 16-17 mph, moderate effort, nice and upright, watching the world go by.   Everything is going just beautifully as I approached Sunrise and went through a little windy S-turn section. And suddenly a rather loud pop and "PSHEEAW" as the front tire catastrophically deflates.  Despite my efforts to straighten up and get some rear brake, soon I found myself skidding along the nice, clean blacktop with my face. Coming to a stop, bike nearby, my immediate assessment is: broken wrist, road rash, dislocated jaw, and loose teeth.

As I lay there, groaning, another biker stops and begins to help me immediately. He walks me over to a picnic table, and sets me down in the shade, and brings my bike over. Realizing that I'm not riding anywhere, I stop him from replacing my innertube on the bike and we begin to figure out where we're at. We're not quite sure where we are.....  But I think the mechanic is only a mile from here.  Maybe they can pick me up, take me to the shop, where I'll pay, and then take my shit to the hospital. The gal at AAMCO agrees to this readily on the phone, and sends Mark, one of the guys who always works on my car, over to get me. Once he found us, we loaded the bike on the car roof, said goodbye to the good Samaritan, and drove to the shop.  As we approached the shop, I became more and more disoriented and nauseous. By the time we got there, I was slumped over and dry-heaving. So, I gave the boss my card, signed on the X, and she called an ambulance. 

Once the ambulance got there, and they saw the road rash on my face, my nausea, and my disorientation, they gave me the full c-spine and board.  Shortly thereafter, seconds really, I started to panic as I was choking on the neckbrace.... and then spent the next two hours trying to not panic in the trauma room: not very successfully, I might sheepishly addmit.  While there, I got full neck, head, and chest CT, both knees, both wrists and hands X-rayed, poked, and prodded.... and everything was awful... just really terrible.... and then Chryss got there , and everything became much nicer   And, she helped moisten my drymouth, wiped off some of the crap off of my face that nobody else would help with... there was friggin gravel in my eye... and kept me calm until Kaiser "Claimed" me via a transfer ambulance.

Eventually, at about 3 am the next day, I fell asleep in an ER bed in Roseville. Once I woke.... since I had been given dischargeability at ~3 am, I wandered out of the room in my bike clothes and blood stains, to a cheerful nursing staff at 6:30 am, none of whom could figure out how I was mobile given what I had gone through on the bike and the amount of drugs they knew I was on.  So, chatting and napping until Chryss got there, and took me to a nice breakfast, then a real bed for some good sleep. 

In between that I learned:
- My parents and in-laws were alerted by email (since it was almost 1 in the morning their-time when Chryss had finally gotten home)
- that my best friend was on his way over
- My mother would be here tomorrow
- My mother-in-law would be here the week after that
- My wrist may or may not be broken
- my knee may or may not be broken
- I have 5 broken bones in my face
- beards protect against road rash
- and in the ER, their job is to stabilize you and no more.  If you need information, ask a random person in the hallway, and it may work out better.
- If your face is broken, you have a little while before it has to be fixed.  And if you are walking around and talking to everybody and being a jackass, they'll be sure to let you know that you have a few days.   So Chill.


So, No big fish chasing for me for at least a couple of days until my wrist hurts less once stabilized.  I was really looking forward to meet all the guys at the Sunrise are,a chasing the salmon, saying hey...... but instead, my mechanic drove me through traffic so that an ambulance could drive me through traffic so that I could get transferred across the county to get released from the hospital in the middle of the night with no way home, so I could make a deal with them to stay at least until my wife got there at 6:30 in the morning (I promised I wouldn't be too much trouble)........ fishing would have been better.

See you on the water soon
Jim

Damn dude. You like those hospitals and docs don't you? You'll be back at it in no time. Take care.

Dude!!!!

Glad you are "ok"!!! 

That's scary stuff right there..rest up and get better...there will be more days to fish in the future.

I pulled a similar move down a gravel hill in 5th grade...the fender came loose and got stuck in the front wheel and over the handlebars I went...lucky to have not lost an eye from the amount of gravel they had to pick our from all over one side of my face...I still have the scars around my eye which show up when I am sunburned...

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Thank goodness your ok. Being a Kaiser Member really screws up a visit to an Emergency Room- especially when trauma is involved. I hope you heal quickly, and catch some monsters upon your return.

Jeff

P.S. F*ck Kaiser. Open enrollment season is coming.

Wow that sucks! I bike that part of the trail pretty often with little to no incident, but you never know when your tire is going to blow up on you. My bike is actually in the shop right now as my front tire blew up at 3am the other day while sitting in my spare bedroom. What a sound to wake up to. But it goes to show that you can never anticipate when and where your tires will pop.

A broken face, possible broken wrist, and possible broken knee!! Lets hope everything is as minimal as can be so you can recover faster.

Ryan

Damn Jim, Hope you heal quickly.

Jim, WTF!  Horrible experience but well told story. Hope it heals up quick.

Thanks guys, I'm already out working in the yard again     Just with an ace bandage on the left wrist 

I'm not going to let a broken face get me down   

Glad your okay Jim, even more glad that you have health insurance.  Salmon are still coming through and will be for a while.  Just tell the doctors your going to be doing aqua therapy, good for body and soul.

Wow that sucks! I bike that part of the trail pretty often with little to no incident, but you never know when your tire is going to blow up on you. My bike is actually in the shop right now as my front tire blew up at 3am the other day while sitting in my spare bedroom. What a sound to wake up to. But it goes to show that you can never anticipate when and where your tires will pop.

A broken face, possible broken wrist, and possible broken knee!! Lets hope everything is as minimal as can be so you can recover faster.

Ryan

That has happened to us more than once, sometime the middle of the night is always the worst! (except on the trail...)

Well my mom flew in this afternoon and her first comment was about how it was just like a wreck I had when about 9 (facial trauma, torn ear, pedal tooth across my cheek, broken wrist), and another at 12 (broken wrist, head trauma, puncture wounds), and another....seriously every few years it seems.... 

As I told Mom this afternoon, when I left the house I looked in the mirror and said to myself that I accept full responsibility for the risk of the ride, then closed the door.  Cause: blown inside seam on the tube.  Across from teh stem, clean burr free fully taped rim... Thats life   

Tuesday I'll know how much work my face needs, but the stuff I'm getting from my nose is pretty freaky 

Dude,

I'm so sorry...  getting sucked in to the system is brutal...  all the hype and circumstance, and then sit and wait...

I often tell people they should take a cab, cleaner and quicker...

Really though, with those symptoms after a fall and looking like Hell,  there was no option for the trained monkeys like myself...

 The good thing, with those symptoms and " Qualifying " for the trauma center,  Kaiser should cover all that, and it was Thousands $$$$, just that ambulance ride was over 2k...

 no wonder our health care system is way screwed...

 Hope your back back on the water soon....

Glad to hear you are doing better, thanks for giving the fish a break.

you just needed to add a collarbone to get the total "cyclist down" treatment.  Quick reminder that the gloves and helmet need to be non optional gear.  Relatively speaking, glad you are OK

you just needed to add a collarbone to get the total "cyclist down" treatment.  Quick reminder that the gloves and helmet need to be non optional gear.  Relatively speaking, glad you are OK

+1 helmet helmet helmet helmet!!!!! Please set the example. Glad you beat the odds on the crash. (Hey maybe you can get a John Wayne chin or other Face implants??? ) Heal well and LISTEN TO THE DOC"S ORDERS (not suggestions) Live hard but take care, we need ya 'round here

Ouch!!! Glad to hear you're okay.....and consider yourself lucky, I couldn't grow a full beard like that if I tried so I'm forever at risk of road rash to the face.   




+2 on the I hate Kaiser, woohoo for open enrollment bandwagon.     

you just needed to add a collarbone to get the total "cyclist down" treatment.  Quick reminder that the gloves and helmet need to be non optional gear.  Relatively speaking, glad you are OK

+1 helmet helmet helmet helmet!!!!! Please set the example. Glad you beat the odds on the crash. (Hey maybe you can get a John Wayne chin or other Face implants??? ) Heal well and LISTEN TO THE DOC"S ORDERS (not suggestions) Live hard but take care, we need ya 'round here

I wholeheartedly disagree with this.......each man/woman is capable of deciding whether or not they need a helmet.