First Bike Accident
I've been commuting to work by bike and MAX for about a month now. Yesterday I did this:
I was biking to the post office from PSU, and attempted to make a left turn into the parking lot. The front wheel of my bike thumped into the streetcar track, and I was thrown from my bike. Luckily the car behind me stopped in time, and the driver got out to make sure I was ok. My chin was bruised, I had the wind knocked out of me, and my hand was scrapped and bruised.
I sat on the curb for a while, getting my composure back, and then walked my bike back to PSU. I locked my bike up, took my bag inside Smith Center, and bought something to eat from the student store. I had been carrying two laptops (my personal laptop and my work laptop) in my paniers; luckily they both survived the bike falling on them. I didn't have my cellphone with me, but I did have a laptop and wireless. I got a hold of Jamey via jabber and asked him to come get me.
I was in a lot of pain, mostly from my hand, so I decided to look up physicians near me while I was waiting for Jamey. I found out that Legacy Good Semaritian Hospital had some doctors that accepted my shiny new Intel health plan. Of course I had no cellphone. A normal person would have packed their bags and found a payphone. What did I do? I installed Skype. Only it doesn't work for 911 or calls to hospitals, as the end-user agreement so clearly stated. So I waited for Jamey.
We got home, ate dinner, and I fell asleep with an icepack on my hand and chin. The next day I went to the hospital to get checked out. (They had ER on the TV in the waitingroom, which is just a poor choice. Jamey politely asked them to turn it off since we were the only ones there.)
We finally saw a nurse, who asked if my wedding band would come off my injuried hand. I replied that I didn't know. He said, "Well, if it can't come off, we'll have to cut it off. If the swelling gets much worse it will cut off your circulation." Jamey and I frantically worked at the ring with some gel. It finally came off after much struggle, which was a giant relief.
They looked at my chin, which was bruised but not fractured. My jaw was aligned properly, and I wasn't missing any teeth, so my head crack on the pavement was mostly harmless. They gave me a tetanus shot, since I was long overdue for one.
Next, they looked at my hand. I had a bruise on the outside of the palm of my hand and my pinky finger hurt. They decided to xray it to see if anything was broken. The doctor didn't see anything, so he said it was just a contusion. They taped my pinky and ring finger together and told me to ice it every couple of hours. They even gave me a prescrption for Vicodin, although I told them I wasn't in a lot of pain. I guess now it's, "Take a couple Vicodin and call me in the morning."
Jamey and I ate at Sushiville for lunch, stopped at Fred Meyers to buy more gel icepacks, and rode MAX home. I fell asleep again and woke up around four to attempt to do some work. Around 5:30, a doctor from the hospital called. "The radiologist was looking at your xrays, and they found a tiny fracture in one of your metacarpal bones. I think you need more than the tape. Can you come in so we can put on a splint?"
So we took MAX and the 15 bus down to the hospital again. It was kind of fun to watch the nurse make the splint. She soaked some material with water from the sink, rolled it in a towel to remove excess moisture, and then placed it between two cotton pads. She folded those around the side of my hand and began to wrap it up. The cotton got a little warm and we asked the doctor about it. He said it was some form of fiberglass. Pretty handy!
Still, it's a bummer that I fractured a bone. I've got to make an appointment with a bone specialist tomorrow.
In summary, I have a bruised chin, a sore left shoulder (from my tetanus shot), and a fractured bone on my left hand.
However, I will ride again! I love biking too much to let this stop me. I'll just be more careful around the max tracks.
I was biking to the post office from PSU, and attempted to make a left turn into the parking lot. The front wheel of my bike thumped into the streetcar track, and I was thrown from my bike. Luckily the car behind me stopped in time, and the driver got out to make sure I was ok. My chin was bruised, I had the wind knocked out of me, and my hand was scrapped and bruised.
I sat on the curb for a while, getting my composure back, and then walked my bike back to PSU. I locked my bike up, took my bag inside Smith Center, and bought something to eat from the student store. I had been carrying two laptops (my personal laptop and my work laptop) in my paniers; luckily they both survived the bike falling on them. I didn't have my cellphone with me, but I did have a laptop and wireless. I got a hold of Jamey via jabber and asked him to come get me.
I was in a lot of pain, mostly from my hand, so I decided to look up physicians near me while I was waiting for Jamey. I found out that Legacy Good Semaritian Hospital had some doctors that accepted my shiny new Intel health plan. Of course I had no cellphone. A normal person would have packed their bags and found a payphone. What did I do? I installed Skype. Only it doesn't work for 911 or calls to hospitals, as the end-user agreement so clearly stated. So I waited for Jamey.
We got home, ate dinner, and I fell asleep with an icepack on my hand and chin. The next day I went to the hospital to get checked out. (They had ER on the TV in the waitingroom, which is just a poor choice. Jamey politely asked them to turn it off since we were the only ones there.)
We finally saw a nurse, who asked if my wedding band would come off my injuried hand. I replied that I didn't know. He said, "Well, if it can't come off, we'll have to cut it off. If the swelling gets much worse it will cut off your circulation." Jamey and I frantically worked at the ring with some gel. It finally came off after much struggle, which was a giant relief.
They looked at my chin, which was bruised but not fractured. My jaw was aligned properly, and I wasn't missing any teeth, so my head crack on the pavement was mostly harmless. They gave me a tetanus shot, since I was long overdue for one.
Next, they looked at my hand. I had a bruise on the outside of the palm of my hand and my pinky finger hurt. They decided to xray it to see if anything was broken. The doctor didn't see anything, so he said it was just a contusion. They taped my pinky and ring finger together and told me to ice it every couple of hours. They even gave me a prescrption for Vicodin, although I told them I wasn't in a lot of pain. I guess now it's, "Take a couple Vicodin and call me in the morning."
Jamey and I ate at Sushiville for lunch, stopped at Fred Meyers to buy more gel icepacks, and rode MAX home. I fell asleep again and woke up around four to attempt to do some work. Around 5:30, a doctor from the hospital called. "The radiologist was looking at your xrays, and they found a tiny fracture in one of your metacarpal bones. I think you need more than the tape. Can you come in so we can put on a splint?"
So we took MAX and the 15 bus down to the hospital again. It was kind of fun to watch the nurse make the splint. She soaked some material with water from the sink, rolled it in a towel to remove excess moisture, and then placed it between two cotton pads. She folded those around the side of my hand and began to wrap it up. The cotton got a little warm and we asked the doctor about it. He said it was some form of fiberglass. Pretty handy!
Still, it's a bummer that I fractured a bone. I've got to make an appointment with a bone specialist tomorrow.
In summary, I have a bruised chin, a sore left shoulder (from my tetanus shot), and a fractured bone on my left hand.
However, I will ride again! I love biking too much to let this stop me. I'll just be more careful around the max tracks.