Ice + Road Bike.. Read the Story

WARNING - This post contains graphic content and pictures from today. Please be advised this post is not recommended for those weak of stomach.

The day started like any other, though it would not end that way. I got up, ate a nice breakfast and prepared my workout plan for the day. Despite the horrid weather (20+ mph winds, 4 degree wind chill) I determined that I would take the bike trails to the gym, do some stairmill, and then ride home.

I layered up for the blustering wind, making sure that no bodypart would be left to be bitten by the chilling wind, and headed out for the gym. I immediately noticed that I was competely alone on the bike trail. In fact, the only other rider I'd see all day was one leaving the convenient store on his mountain bike, 6 pack of beer in tow.

Having an empty bike trail excited me a tad, as it gives a feeling of freedom and almost an air of danger. Little did I know that this air of danger was almost a foreshadowing of what was soon to come. I kept a good strong 20mph pace up to Mile 6, and which I slowed down slightly due to the curvy nature of the bike trail takes on. This was also the area of the bike trail where my friend Kathy crashed last week, and earned her purple bruise all the way up and down her right leg.

I rounded the rounded the corner near Yankton Trail Park at around 22mph and as soon as I had cleared the turn I saw it. The path was covered in ice, apparently a nearby creek had flooded and then frozen. I applied my brakes but knew it was too late. I had hit the ice, still going a good 18mph at this point. My front wheel turned hard left and I went down.

A lot of times you hear people say 'it happened so fast' that they don't remember details. Well, for me it was the total opposite.. it happened so slow I recall every bit of it. The wheel turned hard left and I was thrown forward as the back tire came up in protest to the sharp wheel movement. Had this just been dirt or pavement the crash might have ended there, but since this was ice I was in for a long ride. The initial impact was on the frontside of my helmet, but my face would soon assist in the slide. I slid to the end of the ice on my face/helmet and then another 15 feet on the dirt/concrete that followed.

After the slid came to an end I took a few seconds to regain my composure, sure that I was 'ok'. I stood up and looked around, thinking to myself that it could have been a lot worse. I looked down at my gloves and noticed that they had blood spots all over them, and then the panic kicked in slightly. I leaned forward and watched as a steady stream of blood fall from my face.

As I mentioned earlier, the bike trail was barren of other human lifeforms, so I knew I'd need to call to get help. I hobbled back to the bike, which had taken only part of the slide with me, and got my cell phone out of my bike fanny. With bloody fingers I dialed my wife's work phone and began to tear up. I admit it, I started to cry. Not out of pain, but out of pure adrenaline and emotion. I was upset with myself for wrecking, for hurting myself, for possibly ruining my bike. I told her in a panicked voice that I had wrecked and that I was bleeding a lot. She asked where I was, and luckily I was close enough to a parking lot near the road that I told her to meet me there. At this point I noticed my glasses weren't on my face... because they were lying busted on the bike trail.

After calling her I evaluated my situation. I was alone, bleeding, freezing cold, and waiting for my wife to come. I knew I couldn't fit the bike into the car, so I placed another call. On faith that my customer loyalty mattered I called Spoke-N-Sport and told them what had happened. I asked if they could come pick up my bike for me since I didn't just want to leave it on the bike trail. Immediately they said they'd be right there. Being only a couple of miles away they beat my wife to the scene and sat with me while we waited. Up until this point I had no idea how bad my injuries were. I asked Kyle if I 'looked ok', his silence told me everything I needed... They offered to take me to the hospital, which just made me cry more as I was just astounded how much they were willing to help someone else who they've only known for a short time.

My wife arrived at the park and we headed to the hospital. In the car on the way to the hospital I got my first look at my face in the mirror. My left eyebrow was caked in blood, and the right side of my face was pretty cut up. Honestly, I began to wonder how on earth I had gotten away with so FEW injuries. The pain was about a 7 out of 10, and dizziness was setting in. Upon walking into the emergency room doors I was rushed, nay ushered, into the admissions office where we skipped all paperwork and began to take vitals and such. I was taken quickly to an exam room where the doctor came to see me within mere minutes. Hell, he was there to see me before we could even get me undressed (mind you, layers) and into the hospital gown. We talked for a couple minutes about what happened and he left me to get into the gown. Upon removing layers we found that my Cannondale Bike shorts were ok, but my underarmour compression tights AND compression shorts where torn up. My armour had been destroyed, hehe.

After I got gowned up and into the bed a EMT student came in to clean the wounds. It was humorous though, because when the nurse came in with the laceration cart she said, 'I just had to go get the crash cart.' I can only assume my eyes looked like that of an owl afterwards. The EMT student cleaned all of my wounds, beginning with my skinned forearm and reallllly skinned up knee. After that she tackled the face.. I must admit that for being an EMT student of only 8 months she did a really good job getting all the dirt/mud/crap out of the wound.

The nurse then put some gel anesthetics into the wound. Apparently the gash above my eyebrow was deep enough to need stitches. Some 'deep' stitches, as well as outer ones. I have never had stitches before, and being afraid of stitches, so I was a tad nervous at this point. After the anesthetics kicked in the doctor came back in and stitched me up. The initial stitch was very painful, due to not using enough anesthetics. However, after that one he gave me a shot of a different anesthetic, and I felt NOTHING of what he was doing. We talked about diet and exercise, I think as a method of keeping me occupied.
I was discharged, but not given ANYTHING for the pain which is now reeking havoc on my face.

I'm not allowed to swim for 7 days, and I have to put sunblock on the wound anytime I go outside. But other than that I should be back in the gym on Monday. I'd be back tomorrow but my knee is pretty damn sore and skinned up. Because of this I am going to take the weekend off to heal and recover, and hit it hard on Monday. I will be staying 100% on point for my diet this weekend, because the IMPC continues on regardless of injury.

Oh yeah, while I didn't get a picture of the wound before it was all cleaned up, I did take a post-stitches picture for you guys.. here ya go:


I can safely say that if had I not been wearing a helmet I could have literally died, in fact the doctor would later tell me I was lucky to have lived through it. I want to give a wholehearted thank you to Spoke-N-Sport as well, Kyle and Chad have earned a customer for life thanks to their kindness. As soon as I hear what is wrong with the bike I'll let you guys know.

Josh

Edited by sf_biggestloser 2007-04-06 6:12 PM






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