It's Friday today with no plans and the first thing that I like to do a day like today is ride my bike. I've started to ride more distance rides to get back into shape, or more closely to where i was before my terrible accident. What accident, you ask? I guess now's as good a time an any to type it out again. It's been a while since the last time I tried and I think I've figured out a bit more:
I was on Oahu, Hawaii, just a few weeks after classes had finished and I was waiting for commencement a few weeks after that. I was riding my bike sort of far, probably about 150 miles a week on rides from 25 to 50 miles a pop. I was on such a ride on June 5 on Kam highway headed North. It was in the morning and the high school/elementary/middle school complex they got over in the next city was being fed kids from the many parents dropping them off. They got one traffic light over there that's at the mouth of this school. The time was 7:30, school starts around 8 and there were cars backed up pretty far from this light. What do I care? I ride on the shoulder so I don't have to deal with stupid car drivers. I'm going along, kind of fast, and a car coming from the other direction turns left and I ride into the side of it. I later learned that there was a preschool that the car was turning into, it was actually a Honda Odyssey, and a truck had made a space for the van to go through and had actually waved the van to make the turn. So when the van gunned it to make the turn so the other cars in back of them wouldn't get mad, the driver did that right when I was getting to the same spot.
So now you're asking what happened. I'm gonna tell you but it's not for the weak of heart. As I see this van getting in my way I had the time-slowing-down-thing happen and I know I didn't have time to touch my brakes and I remember thinking of the acceptance I had that I was going to hit them. After that I don't remember the events the occurred directly after but I do know that I was conscience. I do however have the accounts of some of the many people who saw what happened, or I've pieced together most of the story, I think. I ran into the side door of the van and from what I can tell I think my head broke through the window (I had a helmet on) and got cut up on my face, all over my right shoulder, and my right arm. Now I don't remember this but people tell me that I was sort of panicky but dazed. I even stood up after the impact but fell straight back down. I don't remember any of this but when my memory does kick in it's when I'm on the ground at the site of the accident with the paramedics surrounding me. It felt like coming out of a dream and entering a horrible nightmare and a flood of pain clouded everything. I soon got into the ambulance and was on a long ride to the hospital about 45 minutes away. At the hospital I learned that I broke my neck, shattered my collar bone, severed my radial nerve at the bicep on my right arm and deep lacerations on my neck, right shoulder, and right arm.
I was in the hospital for a week, then released to family, and eventually went to recover at my parents house in Salt Lake City, Utah where I didn't grow up or really know anyone. I wore a neck brace for about 4 months, a full arm brace for 3 months, I couldn't move my wrist for 4 months due to the severed nerve, and lots and lots of painful physical therapy.
It's been over a year now and I'm still not back to normal: I don't have my hand working as well as it did, but that might eventually come back, very very slowly, and my right arm is still weak. but no one can really tell anything is wrong, but I have some awesome scars on my neck and arm that everyone asks about. It's like having tattoos with cool stories behind them; great conversation pieces.
Back to what I was saying: I just barely started riding again. I'm living in Ann Arbor, Michigan and am exploring. I found a short trip that I've started going on regularly, from here to Dexter, which is only about 9 miles away. It has a nice shoulder and it isn't too busy with traffic. The only road worthy bike that I have now is just a single gear road bike. I like it a lot. I bought it mainly for commuting around town but it's a great bike; simple and fast. It's a Specialized Langster if you were wondering. It's a great little ride to try and get my endurance going again. I'm trying to do it a least three times a week.
You may be wondering if I'm scarred to be riding a bike. The answer to that one is "yes". I know how little a mistake it takes for me to get me severely injured again, but I love to ride.
One great thing about the accident is that I'm going to get a bunch of money from it real soon i think. I just moved to this house close to downtown and I need to get some furniture for it. I want to get a good bike, and who knows what else. So I spent some of the day planning how I want things. I'm living with two other girls who had lived here before I move in, both of whom are friends, who occupied the upstairs and now that I moved in we have opened the whole house up, both floors. And they're used to living upstairs and they both spend their time up there but we have a whole house, not just one floor. They have some ratty furniture that's up there too but I don't really want it down here. I sort of want to life in a nice place, not so college anymore.
After that I sort of hung out. I still don't know many people here. One of the girls is out of town for a while and the other one has a boyfriend with whom she spends a good deal of her free time with. So it was a quiet evening for me. I really don't mind it though. I like the quiet of just me.
well, this is my first blog here and hopefully i keep it up. thanks for reading.
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