SuzukiQ
10-26-2007, 06:24 PM
This is an excerpt from an email sent to me by an acquaintance. Glad to see he survived and still has his sense of humor.
Now that I’m out from under the influence of the drugs they were giving me (geez, I was groggy and couldn’t ad one and one and get the right answer) I’ll send along this little email to bring everyone who might be curious up to date on what happened.
It was on my way to work on my trusty two wheeler, about two blocks from the house. I was fifteen or twenty feet away from a side street that entered from the right. There was an SUV parked near the corner which I’m sure impaired the other driver’s vision. Doing 20 miles per hour (I never exceed the posted speed limit on that two wheeler), the young lady driving the car (she looked to be maybe 17) pulled out in front of me turning left in my direction. Had she turned into the correct lane (that being the right lane since she was turning in my direction) we may have been able to avoid the accident. But alas, it was not to be. She decided she wanted to use my lane as well, and turned directly toward me.
I had no choice but to lock up the brakes on the cycle. Even at 20 MPH when you’re forced to lock up the brakes on a cycle (something you should always try to avoid), only bad things can happen. When you do that, you give up any semblance of control over the machine and the result was, down we went. I don’t know if the cycle fell on my leg, or if I just got it all twisted up when I fell, but I knew it was broken the minute I hit the pavement.
I didn’t cry. You guys need to know for sure that I didn’t cry. Big boys don’t cry except when you lose a brother (Jeff), see a child abused and hurt, or find a starving puppy. I DIDN’T CRY, but I can assure you that I let out a wail that would have made a Banshee proud, and I continued to do that as long as anybody was trying to move me. I lost my western boots. EMS guy tried to take it off and we knew right away that wouldn’t work, so out came the scissors and bye bye boots. My great red quilted interior motorcycle riding jacket suffered the same fate, cut from the left cuff all the way to the sternum. And, I lost my $2.00 Goodwill shirt which I intended to re-donate to Goodwill, take a $10.00 tax write off, wait for them to launder it, then go buy it back for another $2.00 (less than it cost to have it dry cleaned). You guys ought try that one of these days.
Anyway, I’m home now. I’m staying on the pain meds. I have a hard cast and really wish it was a walking cast. I have great difficulty getting around. The leg snapped (ala Joe Theisman) about three inches above the ankle (both tibia and fibula) and I fractured the big bone about two inches below the prosthetic knee I have on that same leg. I jammed my left shoulder pretty hard into the asphalt and cracked a rib, so with crutches or walker, it hurts like **** to place any weight on it. Every step is painful.
I’m already fed up with doing nothing, don’t want to miss any more work but don’t have any choice, and am screwing up my quartet and chorus rehearsal time I’m already missing my quartet and chorus buds so will try to get back as soon as I can. I have to back to the Orthopedic Surgeon in 10 days.
Now that I’m out from under the influence of the drugs they were giving me (geez, I was groggy and couldn’t ad one and one and get the right answer) I’ll send along this little email to bring everyone who might be curious up to date on what happened.
It was on my way to work on my trusty two wheeler, about two blocks from the house. I was fifteen or twenty feet away from a side street that entered from the right. There was an SUV parked near the corner which I’m sure impaired the other driver’s vision. Doing 20 miles per hour (I never exceed the posted speed limit on that two wheeler), the young lady driving the car (she looked to be maybe 17) pulled out in front of me turning left in my direction. Had she turned into the correct lane (that being the right lane since she was turning in my direction) we may have been able to avoid the accident. But alas, it was not to be. She decided she wanted to use my lane as well, and turned directly toward me.
I had no choice but to lock up the brakes on the cycle. Even at 20 MPH when you’re forced to lock up the brakes on a cycle (something you should always try to avoid), only bad things can happen. When you do that, you give up any semblance of control over the machine and the result was, down we went. I don’t know if the cycle fell on my leg, or if I just got it all twisted up when I fell, but I knew it was broken the minute I hit the pavement.
I didn’t cry. You guys need to know for sure that I didn’t cry. Big boys don’t cry except when you lose a brother (Jeff), see a child abused and hurt, or find a starving puppy. I DIDN’T CRY, but I can assure you that I let out a wail that would have made a Banshee proud, and I continued to do that as long as anybody was trying to move me. I lost my western boots. EMS guy tried to take it off and we knew right away that wouldn’t work, so out came the scissors and bye bye boots. My great red quilted interior motorcycle riding jacket suffered the same fate, cut from the left cuff all the way to the sternum. And, I lost my $2.00 Goodwill shirt which I intended to re-donate to Goodwill, take a $10.00 tax write off, wait for them to launder it, then go buy it back for another $2.00 (less than it cost to have it dry cleaned). You guys ought try that one of these days.
Anyway, I’m home now. I’m staying on the pain meds. I have a hard cast and really wish it was a walking cast. I have great difficulty getting around. The leg snapped (ala Joe Theisman) about three inches above the ankle (both tibia and fibula) and I fractured the big bone about two inches below the prosthetic knee I have on that same leg. I jammed my left shoulder pretty hard into the asphalt and cracked a rib, so with crutches or walker, it hurts like **** to place any weight on it. Every step is painful.
I’m already fed up with doing nothing, don’t want to miss any more work but don’t have any choice, and am screwing up my quartet and chorus rehearsal time I’m already missing my quartet and chorus buds so will try to get back as soon as I can. I have to back to the Orthopedic Surgeon in 10 days.