brokeNscene

Ha.  Sod's law in action. I did it again! The Gods are laughing out loud and all of a sudden I'm a forced southpaw. Again. The season of sunshine and barbecues has finally arrived.  This is the time of year when cycling is at its pinnacle, and where do I stand in the grand scheme of things?

Which space do I occupy on the Monopoly board of life?

fer fucksake

That's right. It's another one of those "Go directly to jail.  Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200" moments. Last weekend started out so normally, too.  What happened? I held a yard sale, (as you do), and when I did I met a fellow who modified his wheelchair to look like this:

Pretty cool, don'tcha think?  Except I highly doubt he'll ever have need of a helmet the way I so often do. Want to see the latest in my line of crushed and destroyed lids?

Not bad work for a Sunday morning, wouldn't you say? 

There's no doubt that I was riding harder and faster than the last time I crashed,

yet this time round I came though sans concussion, blessed be.

That's MIPS in action for you. I was definitely riding faster.  I was having a great ride with the vets, my best yet, and then I made the same dumbass newbie mistake as the last time I crashed.  Those guys are fast.  I fer sure fer sure crashed harder this time round. Half the helmet is caved in, reallly.  The crash completely changed the helmet's shape- far more than the last accident did, and yet my brain came out miles ahead, thanks to that sweet little design.  Take it from a real crash test dummy: it's well worth the investment, a MIPS helmet.

A regular helmet does little to protect you from the actual threat to your brain during a crash, but this baby definitely does the trick.

Too bad it couldn't save the rest of me.  It was ugly.

Yup. Uuuuuuuuuuugly.

The roadrash isn't exactly pretty, either.  It keeps sticking to the sheets when I fall asleep!

Ewww.

But that doesn't happen very often.

These legs sure miss moving. And I really miss my happy place. 

look: teeny tiny opiate pupils

It doesnt' look like much, does it?  The paramedics figured I had broken my collarbone, and perhaps dislocated my shoulder, so they took me to the local community hospital instead of to VGH, the trauma centre for the lower mainland.  Because they did, I spent three days with my arm hanging uselessly off my body awaiting surgery.  Here in  Canada, most collarbone fractures are sent home in a sling, without surgery, but when you shatter your scapula, too, (the way I did) there is nothing left attaching the arm to your shoulder, so they have to fix at least one point of connection.  I am here to tell you that it is a very painful thing when your arm is detached from the rest of your skeleton. They kept telling me that it is the most painful injury you can suffer, and I believe it. I smashed my shoulder and hip hard in the year 2000, resulting in multiple fractures in the same right shoulder and arm, and three fractures in my hip, and that wasn't as painful as this.

breathing hurts

Three days on, the orthopaedic surgeon sliced along the clavicle, (yup, they sliced the whole bone lengthwise) wrapped it in surgical steel, and bolted it back together again, blessed be.  For days after that it hurt even more than it did before, though I hadn't thought it possible. The worst of the swelling is over, though, so I can honestly say I am on the mend. But that's not what needs to be said now.

I need to apologise to my family and friends.  I can see how upsetting it is for you when I'm hurt. I just want to say that I am well and truly sorry to have given you such great cause to worry yet again.  And thank you. Your kind messages, gifts, companionship and support have all combined to make this very difficult week a little more bearable.  I am very grateful, and deeply touched. xo