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08-28-06, 09:27 PM
I woke up Wednesday morning @ 5:30 & decided to go for a ride before work. I made sure the Colnago was ready to ride, got dressed, kissed my wife good morning & headed out at 6:15am.
I live in downtown Dallas, and headed West on a 4-lane 1-way street on my way to a hike/bike trail. The right lane is a bus lane, so I was riding in the lane immediately to its left, so as to not slow down the buses. With one block left of the bus lane, I decided to move into it, since the closest bus was more than a block behind me, and there were cars behind me wanting to get past. I knew that the bus lane wasn't as smooth as the rest of the street, due to the Texas heat combined with the weight of the bus traffic. I didn't realize that the bump down the center was actually a curb-height ridge until it had taken the Colnago out from underneath me as I was trying to move laterally across it. The next thing I knew, I was lying in the street with scraped right arm & leg, and had smacked my head on the pavement rather hard. Since I could see the buss was now barreling down at me, I quickly got up, grabbed the bike, and moved to the sidewalk. Not one person at the bus stop where I had crashed said a word to me or offered assistance. Everyone averted their eyes from me or buried their noses in their newspapers.
Since I had hit my head, I decided to head back home. Had I just fallen and had scrapes on my arm & leg, I'd have continued on my ride. I straightened the handlebars & rode home. I fest above my glasses as I rode, and my fingers came away with blood. My odometer turned over to 1 mile as I arrived at my door.
I woke up my wife and she helped me undress & clean out my wounds. I had really bad road rash on my right arm, just below the elbow. I had road rash on my right calf which just missed my tattoo. I also had a gash over my right eve from the prescription insert of my riding glasses:
http://static.flickr.com/84/222835264_bcdfe00249_t.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/monogodo/222835264/)
Since my arm & shoulder hurt like hell, I called my boss & told her about the accident & that I wasn't going to wrk that day. I figured that my injuries weren't bad enough to go to the ER, but that I should probably see a doctor. I called my doctor as soon as his office opened and was able to get in to see his physician's assistant at 8:45am.
The PA cleaned my head wound a little better, and put better tape on it than we had at home. She also dressed my arm wound. I got a tetanus shot, prescriptions for Lortab & bacitracin, and an order to go get my arm x-rayed.
I had to wait until Thursday afternoon to get the results of the x-ray. I have a non-displaced fracture of the end of the humerus. I made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for Friday afternoon. I also got my prescriptions filled (my arm didn't really start hurting until I'd found out I'd broken it).
Friday afternoon I learned from the orthopedic surgeon that I had sheared off the bulbous knob on the end of my humerus:
http://www.monogodo.org/images/gifs/shoulder.gif
The red line depicts where the separation occurred.
He put my arm in an immobilizer (a sling that has a strap around my torso), and told me he wants to see me again this coming Friday (9/1) for more x-rays. He expressed concern for my elbow, but since I had full range of motion with it, he didn't look too closely at it. It's been hurting ever since.
Essentially, I'm off the bike(s) for the next 9-10 weeks.
I live in downtown Dallas, and headed West on a 4-lane 1-way street on my way to a hike/bike trail. The right lane is a bus lane, so I was riding in the lane immediately to its left, so as to not slow down the buses. With one block left of the bus lane, I decided to move into it, since the closest bus was more than a block behind me, and there were cars behind me wanting to get past. I knew that the bus lane wasn't as smooth as the rest of the street, due to the Texas heat combined with the weight of the bus traffic. I didn't realize that the bump down the center was actually a curb-height ridge until it had taken the Colnago out from underneath me as I was trying to move laterally across it. The next thing I knew, I was lying in the street with scraped right arm & leg, and had smacked my head on the pavement rather hard. Since I could see the buss was now barreling down at me, I quickly got up, grabbed the bike, and moved to the sidewalk. Not one person at the bus stop where I had crashed said a word to me or offered assistance. Everyone averted their eyes from me or buried their noses in their newspapers.
Since I had hit my head, I decided to head back home. Had I just fallen and had scrapes on my arm & leg, I'd have continued on my ride. I straightened the handlebars & rode home. I fest above my glasses as I rode, and my fingers came away with blood. My odometer turned over to 1 mile as I arrived at my door.
I woke up my wife and she helped me undress & clean out my wounds. I had really bad road rash on my right arm, just below the elbow. I had road rash on my right calf which just missed my tattoo. I also had a gash over my right eve from the prescription insert of my riding glasses:
http://static.flickr.com/84/222835264_bcdfe00249_t.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/monogodo/222835264/)
Since my arm & shoulder hurt like hell, I called my boss & told her about the accident & that I wasn't going to wrk that day. I figured that my injuries weren't bad enough to go to the ER, but that I should probably see a doctor. I called my doctor as soon as his office opened and was able to get in to see his physician's assistant at 8:45am.
The PA cleaned my head wound a little better, and put better tape on it than we had at home. She also dressed my arm wound. I got a tetanus shot, prescriptions for Lortab & bacitracin, and an order to go get my arm x-rayed.
I had to wait until Thursday afternoon to get the results of the x-ray. I have a non-displaced fracture of the end of the humerus. I made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for Friday afternoon. I also got my prescriptions filled (my arm didn't really start hurting until I'd found out I'd broken it).
Friday afternoon I learned from the orthopedic surgeon that I had sheared off the bulbous knob on the end of my humerus:
http://www.monogodo.org/images/gifs/shoulder.gif
The red line depicts where the separation occurred.
He put my arm in an immobilizer (a sling that has a strap around my torso), and told me he wants to see me again this coming Friday (9/1) for more x-rays. He expressed concern for my elbow, but since I had full range of motion with it, he didn't look too closely at it. It's been hurting ever since.
Essentially, I'm off the bike(s) for the next 9-10 weeks.