a hectic fall

It was a Monday evening, I just started off my home on my way to Mel & Jo's for our recently resumed weekly meditation meetup. This was the third week in a row I bicycled instead of driving to my meditation friend's home. Evelyn's and Annie's were both in San Clemente, Mel & Jo's was in San Juan Capistrano, closer to my neck of the woods but the route I chose for this bike ride had some up and down, wind-around road challenges I felt a bit anxious to check out.

Maybe too anxious, I forgot the steep slope that led down our community exit that I always needed to maneuver through first, and careless, for I had been riding down this slope so many times before, I didn't apply much brake, and instead of rolling over the speed bump I swerved to its side to bypass it... next thing I knew I saw my wheels hit the seam between the curb and the pavement and start to rattle and wobble and I reckoned I was losing control of my bike and decided to let go the handlebars and fell to the ground...

When I came to, there were a couple of people sitting beside me by the roadside (some Good Samaritan neighbors happened to drive by and saw the accident), a man and a woman, I thought. The woman asked kindly how I felt, I said I was all right, "what day is today," she continued, and I felt funny, because I couldn't answer that question, nor could I figure out why I was there and where I was headed...

They called the ambulance for me and minutes later I was in the Emergency Room of Mission Hospital. They took an X-ray on my left shoulder and a CT-scan on my head and left me resting there for a few hours before returning with the result: A broken collarbone on my left shoulder and a minor concussion on my head. Neither was too serious and should heal themselves in days, they said. They then gave me a prescription for pain-killer medicine and a sling for shoulder support and dispatched me home.

I had a couple nights of very bad sleep not only due to the broken shoulder but also the left wrist and fingers that were red hot swollen and excruciatingly painful. I also experienced morning headaches and dizziness and nausea at times.

But these gradually let up in the following days, to the point when I visited my primary care doctor a week later for followup check, as suggested by the ER staff, I spent about equal time catching up with him (he's been our family doctor for decades and we don't get to see each other except on "special occasions" like this) as talking about the accident and its after-effect on me.

My sense of recovery and well being got even stronger a few days later when I visited an orthopedist referred by my primary care doctor. As a precaution, and to know exactly how my injury was and had been healing, he ordered another X-ray on my shoulder, as well as an MRI on my wrist.

He called me the next day with a somewhat alarming tone: The X-ray report he just saw showed the fracture of my collarbone was much worse than he originally thought, the bone was split far apart and out of alignment, a situation that called for immediate surgery the sooner the better.

I was surprised to hear that and started looking for second opinions on whether I should do surgery or not. After talking to a couple of fellow cyclists who had similar accidents and injuries and had gone through surgeries, a regenerative (non-surgical) medical doctor, and another orthopedist, I concluded I should do the surgery and set up for it the following week, a little more than three weeks from the day the accident happened.

It was a minor surgery--as the doctors liked to say, comparing it to knee replacement or open heart surgeries, I suppose. I was put under general anesthesia, though, and slept through the two-hour operation. What the doctor did was put in a metal plate, drill holes on my bones, fasten the plate and bridge the bones together again.

The post-surgery recovery was quite manageable, the inconveniences I had to live through came from needing to avoid wetting the bandaged surgical cut on my shoulder when taking a bath, and the restricted movement of my left arm and hand that forced me to wash my face with one hand, like a cat, for example.

All these were lifted after I paid my post-op visit to the surgery doctor last Friday. They removed the bandage and stitches from the wound, and said I could start moving my arm and hand around like normal again... no swimming until a couple weeks later, though. 

Neither bicycling, I suppose.

* How to fall off a bike the right way? Believe it or not, I've been cycling off and on for over 8 years, including a 9-day round-the-island tour in Taiwan a couple years ago, and this was the first time I ever fell off a bike. Here is the belated tip I learn from online: 

When sensing an imminent fall, tuck your chin to your chest, keep your hands on the bars or as close to your body as possible, roll when you hit the ground to spread the forces of the impact across a larger surface area, so to reduce your chances of a fracture.

One thing I certainly did not do was holding on to the handlebars, but instead letting it go so easily, maybe subliminally thinking about or trying to apply the fall-down skills I learned from Judo or snow skiing practices, when what's waiting for me down there was not a tatami mat or a soft pile of snow, but hard rugged ground of asphalt pavement!

* Many thanks to those who came to my aid after the accident: From Christine who picked me up at the ER, to Richard who took me to the many doctor visits and the surgery, to Dr. James who referred me a fine orthopedic specialist and gave valuable after-surgery advices, to my across-street neighbors who sent me comfort foods, to my meditation group and book group friends and all others who expressed condolences and good wishes after hearing the accident. Your acts of love and kindness, good thoughts and prayers are more powerful and spread wider than whatever pandemic virus out there is and could!