Sunday, September 15, 2002

so the simple lesson here

so the simple lesson here is that i shouldn’t shoot my fool mouth off. 

brian and jon (two dear friends and former housemates; i’ve known them both for nearly 20 years) drove up to take a nice mellow bike ride with kel and me yesterday.  we were on the path, just getting to the GG bridge, under which bikes have to pass from the crowded east tourist/pedestrian side to the quiet west side, reserved for bikes.  You cruise down a short, gentle hill, around a hairpin turn, and then under the span and back up the other side.  Another path hooks up just east of the bridge after the sharp turn, and things can get pretty crowded - the path’s only about 5’ wide.  maybe that’s why the bridge authority recently installed barriers, plastic cylinders about 3’ tall, maybe 10 of them in a row - in the center of the path, theoretically to keep traffic on its respective sides.  As i approached this zone, there were slow and distracted pedestrians on the right and quick bikers on the left.  trying to split the difference, i found myself on a collision course with the first cylinder.  i slowed as much as i could, then had to hit the brakes hard.  i was going, by jon’s estimate, about 5 mph when i locked my front disc brake.  you can see it, can’t you - the back tire lifting away from the pavement, my hands releasing the brakes and extending in front of me, the bike still tied to my shimano-clad feet…

i think i landed primarily on my chest, which thankfully i’d been building up with much exercise lately. got my wind knocked out and tore some holes in a favorite t-shirt.  i hit the ground hard - kel said it was like i’d been picked up and hurled down face first.  The visor to my helmet snapped off.  i dragged my left elbow and both knees, resulting in moderate road rash.  Afterwards, i lay on my side, wondering about the extent of the damage.  My friends were on the scene instantly, as was a very professional italian biking team in town for a major race the next day, all riding top-of-the-line road bikes and wearing matching zebra-stripe body suits.  i was glad my friends were concerned but when a bunch of jaded eurostuds took my fall seriously i knew i’d hit the big time.

jon went to get a cop (the bridge is crawling with them these days) and the italians slowly extricated me from my GT hardtail.  i started the familiar testing process: both ankles fine, both knees working, hips ok, back and neck unaffected, left shoulder elbow wrist checked out… right shoulder ok, ditto the elbow, but when i went to bend my right wrist it looked funny and i could feel chunks of bone floating around like ice in a highball.  i told my friends that it was broken but that was superfluous - a big lump was sticking out where no lump had stuck previously.  i started going shocky (vagal response, technically) and laid down till the ambulence arrived. 

Four cops and four paramedics worked together to splint me and get me in the transport; my injury was pretty gross though not bloody and the cops were trying not to look at it.  all i knew about italian bike teams was from the movie Breaking Away, where they were total assholes; i was so happy to have these guys’ kind and solicitous assistance i wanted to thank them and wish them good luck in tomorrow’s (today’s) race but since i don’t speak italian and they barely spoke english i tried french; i knew enough to say merci but screwed up ‘bonne chance’ - i was pretty shocky and wished them ‘bon marche’’ - ‘department store.’ i hope they figured it out later cuz i was heading into the cool red truck. 

in the ambulence my bp went from 90/60 to 70/60 - that meant no drugs yet, and a big #14 needle for my ringer’s iv.  Jon rode with us to ucsf emergency, where kel and brian soon caught up with us.  no one told me, ‘its not so bad’ or ‘that’s got to sting...’- the staff were friendly and helpful and uniformly shocked at the huge deformity in my wrist.  i eventually got 5 ccs of morphiene - three times - plus three lidocaine injections right into the broken bone and a bunch of synthetic morpheine that was supposed to be really strong.  my wrist was in bad pain.  Staff used words to describe the injury like ‘ugly’ and ‘nasty’ and ‘very serious.’ i was awake when it was reset - they call it ‘reduced’ - first they hung my fingers from metal traps to stretch out the spasming muscles, assisted with 20 lbs of weight hanging off my elbow; then the lidocaine (it burns like sterno going in), and then some vigorous pulling and twisting to get the bones back about where they belonged.  A new set of xrays showed the job wasn’t quite done yet so i got to endure it all again. 

i’m now scheduled for surgery tomorrow to have pins inserted into the shattered fragments of my radius (i’d won a bet with someone that i’d broken that bone- don’t recall who now...).  they say i’ll be in a cast for 8 weeks - naturally on my dominant side.  So i’ll be very limited in my ability to help around the house, to walk the big bouncy dog, to zip my pants, to write and to type.  i’ve done all of this typing with just my left hand, as i recently intimated i was able.  okay, i can do it, but its’ very slow and frustrating.  i’ll be missing services tonight and tomorrow as well, but at least i’m invited to dave-n-kim’s to watch the sopranos.  this is going to be uncomfortable for a long time, and inconvenient for even longer. 

so, sorry if my output here drops off - i’m going to have to do less writing and more resting.  starting now.  send yer love - and demerol…