Damn gravel
Jun. 6th, 2007 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleyThe corner leading from the gravel road onto the pavement in our sub got me again today. Last time (1.5 years ago) it was just ice and I skidded on my butt. This time my front wheel went out on the loose gravel, and I now have 9 stitches in my face, and I need to buy a new helmet (the visor got smashed and the front left edge is bashed in a bit).
I've been taking that corner a little fast I guess; I know there's a lot of loose gravel and sand on it but I'd been getting really good traction on it, and I pushed it too hard. Lesson learned.
Lemme tell you, when your front wheel goes out, you have NO TIME to roll out or do anything. You feel a little slide and your face is on the pavement. I'll be watching out for loose gravel in the future. The gravel roads themselves are not the problem, it's the transitions where there is gravel on pavement; it's like riding on ball bearings.
Really no big injuries. I got up immediately, straightened out my bike, checked for serious damage, inventoried my body; nose not broken, teeth all still there, no obvious broken bones, no problems walking or balance problems, eyes both still working and converging, blood dripping but not flowing fast or anything so get back on and ride the rest of the way home (less than a mile). It looked pretty bad in the mirror (part of my face covered in blood, I was spitting gravel and blood all the way home, making me recheck my teeth and tongue several times) but wasn't horrible once I took a shower, the bleeding pretty much stopped within 5 minutes of the accident. I decided to just clean it up and bandage it, but when I went to do so, one cut turned out to be pretty deep (probably 1/4" deep at the most) and a bit over an inch long, so I decided I'd best go let the ER take a look. In the end they put 4 stitches in the smaller cut and 5 in the other.
The triage guy looked at me a little funny when he asked my pain level from 1 to 10 and I tried to say "zero" - they're just cuts, once made they don't hurt. But I had a small rivulet of blood dripping down and I guess he didn't think it looked like it shouldn't hurt. But I wasn't sweating or getting pale and my pulse and BP were in range (a bit elevated) so in the end he decided I wasn't going into shock or something.
I whipped out my leatherman while waiting for the doctor and did a little straightening on my glasses. They're flexon frames but the hinges are rigid and the left one had flattened a bit. All better now.
I had to ask a couple of times before they really got the idea that they really didn't need to use anesthetic to do the stitching. It takes about 40 minutes between the topical and the injection before they can start stitching, and I was getting kind of hungry, wanted to go home and eat, and I had to mow the lawn tonight, and though I have never had stitches before I didn't figure they would be that bad. They weren't. I just unfocused that part of my face and I mostly had to peek to see if he was even doing anything. A new nurse came in and learned to assist for this procedure.
The doc that stitched me up just bought a bike similar to mine, and used to do some BMX'ing back when he had time for it.
I've got a host of other road rash; my left shoulder, left elbow, left knee and left hip are all abraded. I have a real nice lump in the middle of my right shin, though it's gone down a bit in the 4 hours since the incident. A few parts of the left side of my face feel abraded, my nose and lip have some rash on them. Nothing that concerns me greatly, I'll just have to wear some old clothes to bed tonight to keep from getting blood on the sheets, and that should be about the end of that.
I look a little rough right now, but once things close up and I wash up tomorrow it'll probably look a lot better. I was just telling someone at work today how I hardly ever bruise; we'll see how that works out for me...
Oh well. Back to my old helmet for tomorrow. Nobody seems to be having sales on reasonably-priced helmets right now either, bummer. I don't really want to spend $50+ on a helmet, because IMHO there's not that much difference once you get into non-Wal*mart helmets (though the Xmart helmets are pretty uncomfortable and cheap. They probably meet ANSI specs, barely, but not much more. I don't want to live in one 300+ hours a year).
I've been taking that corner a little fast I guess; I know there's a lot of loose gravel and sand on it but I'd been getting really good traction on it, and I pushed it too hard. Lesson learned.
Lemme tell you, when your front wheel goes out, you have NO TIME to roll out or do anything. You feel a little slide and your face is on the pavement. I'll be watching out for loose gravel in the future. The gravel roads themselves are not the problem, it's the transitions where there is gravel on pavement; it's like riding on ball bearings.
Really no big injuries. I got up immediately, straightened out my bike, checked for serious damage, inventoried my body; nose not broken, teeth all still there, no obvious broken bones, no problems walking or balance problems, eyes both still working and converging, blood dripping but not flowing fast or anything so get back on and ride the rest of the way home (less than a mile). It looked pretty bad in the mirror (part of my face covered in blood, I was spitting gravel and blood all the way home, making me recheck my teeth and tongue several times) but wasn't horrible once I took a shower, the bleeding pretty much stopped within 5 minutes of the accident. I decided to just clean it up and bandage it, but when I went to do so, one cut turned out to be pretty deep (probably 1/4" deep at the most) and a bit over an inch long, so I decided I'd best go let the ER take a look. In the end they put 4 stitches in the smaller cut and 5 in the other.
The triage guy looked at me a little funny when he asked my pain level from 1 to 10 and I tried to say "zero" - they're just cuts, once made they don't hurt. But I had a small rivulet of blood dripping down and I guess he didn't think it looked like it shouldn't hurt. But I wasn't sweating or getting pale and my pulse and BP were in range (a bit elevated) so in the end he decided I wasn't going into shock or something.
I whipped out my leatherman while waiting for the doctor and did a little straightening on my glasses. They're flexon frames but the hinges are rigid and the left one had flattened a bit. All better now.
I had to ask a couple of times before they really got the idea that they really didn't need to use anesthetic to do the stitching. It takes about 40 minutes between the topical and the injection before they can start stitching, and I was getting kind of hungry, wanted to go home and eat, and I had to mow the lawn tonight, and though I have never had stitches before I didn't figure they would be that bad. They weren't. I just unfocused that part of my face and I mostly had to peek to see if he was even doing anything. A new nurse came in and learned to assist for this procedure.
The doc that stitched me up just bought a bike similar to mine, and used to do some BMX'ing back when he had time for it.
I've got a host of other road rash; my left shoulder, left elbow, left knee and left hip are all abraded. I have a real nice lump in the middle of my right shin, though it's gone down a bit in the 4 hours since the incident. A few parts of the left side of my face feel abraded, my nose and lip have some rash on them. Nothing that concerns me greatly, I'll just have to wear some old clothes to bed tonight to keep from getting blood on the sheets, and that should be about the end of that.
I look a little rough right now, but once things close up and I wash up tomorrow it'll probably look a lot better. I was just telling someone at work today how I hardly ever bruise; we'll see how that works out for me...
Oh well. Back to my old helmet for tomorrow. Nobody seems to be having sales on reasonably-priced helmets right now either, bummer. I don't really want to spend $50+ on a helmet, because IMHO there's not that much difference once you get into non-Wal*mart helmets (though the Xmart helmets are pretty uncomfortable and cheap. They probably meet ANSI specs, barely, but not much more. I don't want to live in one 300+ hours a year).
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Date: 2007-06-08 04:19 am (UTC)