Sunday, September 26, 2010

Rest Period

So...No more bike racing for awhile. No Cross but I might be OK for the Swank in November, then the 24 hr.Charleston race. Riding my motorcycle home from work Thursday night a girl decided to ignore the fact of oncoming traffic (me) was definitely oncoming and turned left into me. 8th time I've been taken out on 2 wheels. Anyways- I was in sight of the turn into my neighborhood so I wasn't moving fast greatly reducing the damage. After a quick, unnecessarily bumpy trip in the ambulance we arrived. "We" meaning me and the demon paramedics. I thought I was going to choke to death due to the neck brace installation and knew I was in big trouble when I saw the driver was a woman. After alternating between full gas and screeching halts sliding me around we finally made it to the MUSC Trauma Center where we would remain for eternity. I had managed to work my unneeded neck brace loose and could breathe again by this point and the adrenaline was wearing off allowing me to take stock of the situation. I was pleased that for the first time after being hit I had no apparent head or neck injuries ( those motorcycle helmets are waaay better than bicycle helmets.) and hardly any road rash. The entire left side of my body however was killing me. There was no position that I could wiggle around to to aleviate the rapidly increasing pain. I would lay around on my gurney for quite some time before Liza was allowed in and a nurse showed up.
Finally a nurse came in and gave me a couple of shots easing the pain and allowing me to lay still. After many rounds of painful X-rays, a cat scan, a ton of redundant questions and prodding, and eight hours time wasted that I'll never get back, dressing myself and attempting to leave ( I could have walked out and they wouln't have noticed),the doctor came in. Prognosis- broken ribs and a collapsed lung. It was recommended that I spend the night and get X-rays of the lung in the morning. No way. I told him I didn't think that was necessary and I should go home. He gave us some time to think about it and came back an hour later. It occurred to him that we'd been there 8 hrs already so he sent me for a more up to date x-ray to check on the lung and released me.
4-8 weeks recovery is predicted but I'll be up in no time. The next time I get hurt I'm willing to bleed out before I go to MUSC again. Terrible. I know hospitals and that place was by far the worst ever. I was the only patient there for most of the time and still got crummy service. So I figure if MUSC world time is 4-8 weeks recovery, a normal person's time is more accurately 2-4.
I'll be up and around in no time. Later-DH

1 comment:

David Dawson said...

Wow, so sorry to hear that, but glad you are okay (relatively). Also disappointed by the care at MUSC, I will make a mental note in case I get laid out out again. If you need anything, let me know.