Day after bike accident

Taken from MySpace
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Durango a No Go


So, it's 2 days away from Iron Horse in Durango, what was going to be my first road race, followed by a 10-mile foot race the next morning. I was planning on already being there, but here I am at my parents' house, still in hospital pants, with ice on my hip, narcotics in my system, and crutches.

Tuesday morning, I went for a great easy ride with a new friend and ex pro-cyclist....so glad I got to enjoy a nice ride that day. I decided to go ahead and do the crit that night. I got there nice and early, and once things were set up I set out for my warmup. Halfway around the first lap, a soccer player started crossing. I yelled "Rider Left!", but what did he do? He sped up instead of stopping. I veered left hard to avoid him, and then a girl came out of nowhere and ran right in front of me. I couldn't avoid her and went crashing into her at probably just under 20mph. She went down on her face, and I went down on my left hip. I tried to get up, but realized that wasn't happening. I had road rash on my left arm, a gash (that is still bleeding!) on my left hip, and a very messed up pelvis.

I decided to sit around at the crit and watch for a while and drink some of the beers I had brought. I obviously wasn't racing, since I couldn't raise my left leg. At one point, I decided to get out of the chair and onto the grass so I could stretch out, at which point, my whole hip and back seized up. I grabbed onto my friend Mike...sure I surprised the hell out of him. I had to lean up against something to stop using those muscles. I knew I had to go to the hospital. Mike was nice enough to take me (and Keely) and hang out with us.

So, spent a few hours in the hospital, won't go into too much detail, although I could tell some interesting little stories. Turns out I have a fractured pelvis...if I could move faster, I would go get the xray pics and scan and post them...pretty cool stuff. Anyway, it's the wing of my pelvis and the fracture is through most of the heighth of the wing. Thankfully, it's non-weight bearing, but all my newly developed cycling muscles attach there, so if I twist at all, it pulls on the bone, hence excruciating pain if I move too much or too fast. Got one stitch in my hip and a round of morphine in the hospital, which really just made me loopy.

Mike was a godsend that night. He hung out with me the whole time, watched Keely when I had to go in for a procedure, took me to my parents afterward at 3am, and saw way too much of me in that one night. He saw me puke and nearly pass out after the percocet hit me on an empty stomach...not a pretty time...saw me getting a stitch, getting an ultrasound, loopy from morphine, crying in pain and in frustration, and more I can't think of right now.

So, not sure how long it will be until I am mobile again. I am still moving around slowly...if I can get in and out of my car without screaming, I still may go to Durango and hang out. There are so many people I know that will be there.

Anyhoo, it's awfully boring sitting around and not being able to just get up and go....makes you really appreciate the little things, like being able to go to the bathroom without crutches, or anywhere for that matter, being able to sit without pain, or riding your bike pain free.

P.S. The bike made it through fine. I asked them to check and make sure my new race wheels were still true. Yeah!