Tag Archives: Accident

I’m such a baby

February 21, 2010 14:48 | 2 Comments |

I don’t do well with injuries. Not well at all. It feels like someone has taken to the left side of my chest with a hammer. I’m really feeling it today. Every time I take a deep breath or move, a sharp stabbing pain radiates out from my chest. Lying down and getting up is excruciating. I have no idea if this is normal or how long I’m going to feel like this. The doctor at the hospital probably told me but I was so whacked out of my head on morphine, I can’t remember. (A quick google search says it’ll hurt for at least six weeks and the pain is normal.) I suppose what’s worrying me slightly is that I have pain in my back but it’s probably referred pain from the rib. It’s in line with the injury site so it would seem normal for the pain to be spreading out.

The bruises are coming out now. My left knee isn’t swollen any more which indicates the bleeding has finally stopped but the whole side of my knee is one giant and painful bruise. Yay for hematomas! I have a spectacular bruise on my right arm which I’m not 100% sure how I got. I don’t remember putting my arms out in an effort to break my fall (sure fire way to break your collar bone!) but I probably did it anyway.

Hospitals are not fun places to be on your own. It’s not fun to be in pain and surrounded by strangers. Admittedly those strangers were there to help me but mostly I wanted someone I knew to hold my hand and tell me it was going to be okay. I have no concept of how long I was by myself but it felt like forever. Being in a totally unfamiliar place that smells funny, unable to move because of a neck brace is actually really scary. It wasn’t helped by the fact that somewhere nearby there was a guy who would yell in pain about every ten minutes. Turns out he had a dislocated knee but he was resisting treatment. People do weird things when they’re in pain.

Familiar voices make such a huge difference. Even in my morphine induced blur, I felt better when I had people I knew nearby. After I panicked when I though I was going to throw up but couldn’t move, having my friend take my hand and rub my arm was hugely comforting.

It’s funny, I find this whole thing really hard to write about. I don’t cope well with being injured. It was scary being carted off in an ambulance. It was really scary after I’d hit the ground and recovered from the initial shock that my ribs started hurting and wouldn’t stop. I know I’m lucky that I wasn’t seriously injured and I know I’m lucky that I’m not hospital. But why do I feel so… traumatised by it? Is it because I’m just a big baby who needs to harden up?

I have to find a way to deal with the pain in my ribs because it’s going to be there for awhile. They can’t be instantly fixed.

Posted in: Bike | Tagged: , , ,

Really wasn’t on my list of things to do last night

February 19, 2010 15:28 | Leave a Comment |

Today I’m sporting a likely cracked rib, a bruised and slightly swollen left knee and I’ve got a few bruises popping up. The chest x-rays didn’t show an obviously broken a rib but the doctor was fairly certain I have a hairline fracture which won’t show up.

Hitting a car on the way home from work last night really wasn’t on my list of things to do. What was getting some takeaway from the local Japanese place and sitting on the couch. There may have also been time set aside for eating what’s left of the open bag of peanut butter m&ms. (I was having a bad day okay!)

So yes… I hit a car. It’s kinda hard to explain. I think it was at the intersection of Canning and Richardson St. Two cars. One next to me who was turning left and one crossing Canning on Richardson. The guy on Canning had stopped and left space for me to get by. I think he edged forward or took his foot off the brake and I decided it would be better to go around him on the outside. But the car driver on Richardson thought the one on Canning had stopped for him so he went. I saw this, tried to brake but was going too fast and ended up rapidly decelerating by slamming into the back of the car. My bike kinda jack-knifed and I went over the frame instead of the handlebars. Ended up a crumpled mess on the road, coming down on my left side which I’d just rammed into the car.

First time in my life I’ve had morphine. Not sure I like it that much. It’s great at deadening the pain but it made me feel sick. I’m also really not keen on the neck collar. It just hurt my jaw and I was so glad to have it taken off when they finally removed it. The time at the hospital is actually a bit of a blur. Mostly I just felt sick until they gave me some really good anti-nausea drugs after I had my x-rays.

I did discover that my resting heart rate is actually quite low. While I was lying in the hospital, it got down into the low 40s. That’s probably lower than normal for me as I was doped up on morphine but it never really got above 50. I had the doctor come in and start checking my head and neck but as soon as she touched my head, my body temperature shot up and I was certain I was going to vomit. But I still had the neck brace on so they had to page a bunch of people to come in and roll me on my side. And then I didn’t vomit. All that effort for nothing. I was hooked up a heart monitor during this ordeal (panicking whilst wearing a neck brace and unable to move on your own is freaken scary) but my friend who was with me said my heart only got up to 56. So, obviously I’m fitter than I thought I was. Not exactly comforting but kinda good to know.

I’ve never hurt my ribs before. It’s not something I’d recommend to anyone. It hurts to take a deep breath, it hurts to laugh, cough and even burp. Sitting upright is more comfortable than lying down but it still hurts.

Posted in: Bike | Tagged: , ,

Homeward-bound misadventures

November 18, 2009 22:49 | Leave a Comment |

Today’s journey home from work was… interesting.

When I got down to Lisa yesterday after work, I noticed a piece-of-shit mountain bike which had been parked in the bike rack rear tyre in had its front tyre pushing hard against Lisa’s rear derailleur. The gear changes seemed a little rougher on the way home and it felt like she wasn’t changing gear when I asked her to but I thought it was just my imagination. When I got out of work today and attempted to pedal off, I couldn’t change gear initially. And when she did, it was under duress. So it was off to the bike shop for me. Turned out she only needed a little adjusting but I was surprised at how I reacted.

I was so angry and really concerned that someone had hurt my baby. And that’s just plain weird. It’s a bike. Pieces of aluminium, carbon, metal and rubber. She doesn’t have feelings, she can’t be injured. She’s not even a she, she’s an it. But I’m certain I’m not the only one who refers to their bike by gender and has given their trusty stead a name. I’m certain there are a bunch of guys out there who have names for their bikes but will never, in a million years, admit it. We bond with our bikes and the relationship is remarkably strong. To be honest I think there’s something odd if you don’t bond with your bike. And that’s more than a little peculiar.

Anyhoo.. enough waxing lyrical about that. To the other part of my misadventures.

I saw a guy on a bike get hit by a car on St Georges Road.

I’d done my usual thing and stopped at the pedestrian crossing which takes forever to change. I watched a few cyclists go by, doing the usual hugging of the gutter when the accident unfolded in front of me. The driver was totally at fault. She turned in front of him, leaving him with nowhere to go. He struck her car’s bonnet and then kinda rolled along the side of her car until he finally hit the ground. The strange thing was it wasn’t that noisy. There was the thump of him hitting the car but I could hear him say something along the lines of oh god! as it was happening.

It happened so fast but it seemed to take forever. I can remember thinking holy shit!! as it happened and then I just ran to the guy. (Not sure how I managed that in cletes!) I don’t know how but he wasn’t seriously injured. He had a lot of scraps and had a massive bruise forming on his arm but he was okay. Scared shitless but up and walking around. I actually think he was embarrassed by suddenly being the centre of so much attention as quite a few people had stopped to see if he was okay. I was about to leave when I realised I should give him my details as I saw the whole thing and could be witness for him when the insurance company inevitably tries to screw him over. Because, hey he’s just some stupid cyclist. Surely the accident was his fault. *rolls eyes*

What killed me most about it was the woman who hit him looked like she was going to drive away and when she did finally did make an appearance her excuse was I just didn’t see him. I couldn’t see past the truck. And then she came out with the gem of I’m a cyclist too. I didn’t say anything to her because I didn’t doubt she was genuinely distressed by what had just happened but I couldn’t help wondering why she decided she had to turn when the truck was blocking her vision. Waiting another five seconds for the traffic to clear would’ve made such a huge difference to her day. She would’ve seen the guy and not gone, saving herself the trauma of plowing into someone and he wouldn’t be in what I imagine is a huge amount of pain right now. Only if she’d waited a few seconds more. It’s not like she was holding up traffic. St Georges Road is a four-lane road, any cars behind her could’ve gone around. But no, she couldn’t wait.

Today’s events just reinforces my belief that we’ve become a society that’s all about the now. We always have somewhere to be, we’re always super busy, nothing can wait. We have no patience and appear to have lost the ability to simply stop. But I’m thinking the next time she turns right against traffic, she’s going to make damn sure there are no cyclists around. For a little while anyway.

Posted in: Bike | Tagged: , , , ,

I done broke it

August 30, 2009 18:39 | Leave a Comment |

I never realised how attached I am to my car until I smacked it into someone else’s.

car-damage

I mean, it’s just a car right? It’s little, girly, get me from A to B sort of car. But I am utterly crushed. I’ve had it for six years now and it’s been an awesome little car. It’s easy to drive, easy to park and not too expensive to run. It’s also the only asset I actually own.

Sigh.

I was leaving my parents’ place after spending the weekend there and I rear-ended someone. I don’t even have the small salve of having it be someone else’s fault. It was totally my fault. I was at the lights waiting for the lights to change and I looked away for a second but I must’ve eased my foot of the clutch and the next thing I know – WHAM!! Lots of crunching noises and my car is definitely worse for wear. The car I hit came out of it with a few scratches while mine looks devastated.

It’s totally my fault though. I should’ve either not glanced away or left my foot on the clutch. I think my brain went: “Hey, the light is gree…. Ooohh… what’s that over there?” but the message had already been sent to my feet to ease off the clutch and push the accelerator. Mostly, I just feel so freaken stupid it’s not funny. What a dumb-arse thing to do. At least the impact wasn’t hard enough to deploy my airbag as a broken nose and two black eyes wouldn’t have improved things. So yes, now I have the fun job of making a claim with my insurance company. That’ll be interesting.

I’ve never hit any one before, I’ve been in several accidents (nothing major) but this is the first time I’ve caused one. What shocks me the most is how quickly it happened. I really only glanced away for a second but that suggests I’d stopped too close to the car in front. See, totally my fault. However, I must admit I’m more than a little cranky with the first car who simply didn’t move when the lights changed – so I’m blaming them just a little bit.

It’s drivable but I opted to leave it at my parents’ place as a two hour drive didn’t exactly thrill me. I managed to crumple the bonnet and demolish the front grill whilst pushing it back into the radiator. The radiator isn’t leaking but it definitely looks bent. You can’t see it in the photo but the strut on the left that comes out of the Hyundai logo has been snapped clean through. Yeah, nothing half-arsed about my efforts!!

Posted in: Blatherings | Tagged: ,

Go team me!

July 12, 2009 14:03 | Leave a Comment |

I got back on my bike today. I didn’t go far and it was hardly any time at all but it feels like I achieved something. I was so nervous when I was putting my shoes on and I was definitely scared. But I did it. I also discovered I’ve still got a bit of healing to do. It hurt to lift my leg over the bike and my elbow still isn’t right.

It’s weird how something so simple can give me such a sense of achievement.

As my brother pointed out, I spent all that money so I really need to get back on the bike. Also, I really hate catching the train.

My bike is in the shop now for her first service. I decided to replace the handlebar tape (white is never a good choice with me) and they’re going to check the rear gearing because it definitely wasn’t right when shifting into the bottom gears. There’s some scraps along the right right of the bike and my pedal looks like it’s been attacked with a file but I’m glad that’s all that’s wrong. It could’ve been a lot worse.

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