I had a life changing accident on my bike that resulted in 7 hours of surgery, 8 days in a hospital, 2 months in a wheelchair, and three more months on crutches and a cane. I didn't walk without aid until June and began riding again soon after.

A couple of weeks after the crash, I posted a thread here asking if anyone else had been injured in a bicycle accident in the same location. What followed was an incredible string of comments offering 1) sympathy and well wishes for recovery, 2) accusations that I was out to get rich with a lawsuit, and 3) cyber shouts that I needed to HTFU. Eventually the thread was locked down.

During my bike ride today I thought about all of those comments and decided to respond to each.

1) For those of you who offered sympathy and well wishes, I thank you. Your comments helped me through some of the darker days when it wasn't certain if I'd be able to walk again. You gave me the courage to get back on my bike and ride again.

2) For those of you who accused me of pursuing a lawsuit to get rich, I must disappoint you by saying there was no lawsuit and I never intended to pursue one.

Nevertheless, I encourage each of you to talk to someone who been paid damages for injury and ask them if they felt like they got the better deal. In my case, there's no amount of money that could ever compensate me for the arthritis, discomfort, and hip replacement surgery that I will certainly face in the coming years.

3) Finally, for those who told me to HTFU. I tried that, but it was really difficult given that I couldn't even go to the bathroom for a month without assistance. It's really hard to HTFU when you have to piss in a jar, have someone wipe your ass, and when you are tethered to a drip IV of vancomycin.

So to those who told me to HTFU ... go STFU and save your idiotic bravado for your own accident.