It has now been two weeks and most Tweeps and Facebookers among you are already “up to date”, but just for fun I’ll throw in a free a blog post on my latest crash.
Wednesday, May 8, I was “on zee baik” for the 6th time in 7 days. Putting on more miles for the Strava “May Massive” challenge, just during a period of good – well: relatively speaking – weather.
In short, I was in a flow – or so I thought …
On my return, about 72 kilometers into the ride, I decided to go for a full 100 k again and did not take the shortcut home.
That would have been about 10 k more and even a bit further on, I was considering to shorten the ride a bit (by about 5 k). If only I had, but I was stubborn and 100 is 100 and not the same as 92…
Just after crossing a bridge – roughly 5 k from home – I took a sip from my water bottle and slammed against the asphalt.
As it turned out it’s only a 2 meter stretch of bad road on an otherwise beautiful bike path, but it was enough and just like last time (March 11, 2012) I knew that I was not going to get away with a few scrapes and bruises.
I tried to get up, but had to sit / lie back immediately and luckily shortly after someone came my way and called the emergency services.
I was not too keen on getting into an ambulance, because last time I had to be stabilized and that was a three hour long drag (until all scans and examinations where done).
Besides, knowing that Paula would have to be called (again) to come to the hospital, I’d rather try to get home by myself…
Total stupidity of course and as it turned out it was not unlikely that doing so would have been fatal.
Anyway, I had to wait for the ambulance, because they could not find us at first but eventually, after about 20 minutes, they arrived.
I did not have to be stabilized, so I was put on the stretcher into the ambulance and got an IV with a painkiller.
In the hospital after some routine checks, the photos / scans for the family scrapbook where taken and it was clear that I was not going home.
A couple of broken ribs (5 through 7 this time) and worse: a pneumothorax. That sounds more interesting than, but simply is, a collapsed lung and with a little luck, it heals “naturally / by itself”.
But you do not know this in advance and as it turned out, it didn’t.
The second day the lung had collapsed further, so it had to be drained.
With great interest from a handful of interns (as it was Ascension Day, there was “a Sunday’s peace” in the hospital and apparently a drain like that is not placed very often) it was inserted.
Between the already broken ribs, so I admit it was a bit painful and I may have cursed Grunter a couple of times…
Because I was throwing up on a regular basis and I was dying of the neck- and headaches, I was put in the scanner again.
Luckily, nothing worse than a concussion was diagnosed, but at least they gave me Diazepam, which helped more than the Oxycontin and Oxynorm, at least with regards to the headache.
After that, I spent a day or two in reasonable peace and a rather comatose state. I had to be hooked up to the vacuum pump, because the water lock was not enough, but that was about it.
Sunday the lung had restored in so far that I got “unhooked” and just remained on the water lock – if all went well, the drain would be taken out on Tuesday.
It did and so it happened and Tuesday afternoon I was sent home.
No place like home, although a hospital bed also has its advantages over the one at home, but at least you get rid of the daily (anti) thromboses shots :-).
By now, I had already figured out that this time it was not so bad as last year with regards to moving (in bed or otherwise, like in a car).
Probably because the fractures are now higher and more toward the front of my body.
So now it’s pretty much like last time: sit it out and start over again.
I was not too happy with the (damage) report on the bike: although this time it’s not a total loss, I was not really expecting a predicted bill of 1,205 Euros.
And that’s not including the broken / cracked helmet and the Garmin Edge 500 that disappeared into thin air.
The latter was catapulted off the bike during impact and was not found; a search in both directions and both sides of the path, over a distance of 50 meters yielded nothing, resembling a Garmin – plenty of dog shit though.
So, the Strava challenge for May ended in the hospital, but fortunately there are already more of them announced for the coming months.
At this time I’m not even sure when I will be able to get back on the bike other than on a “therapeutic basis”.
I have also been told that a pneumothorax should not been taken lightly either. On the other hand, I guess there are “favorable – Sufferlandrian” conditions that make a faster than normal recovery possible.
For now, I do not even have the bike back yet, so if anything, it will have to be on the Body Bike.
With two new Club Virtual videos online, I will not get bored 🙂
