Unfortunately, the most interesting thing that happened to me recently was painful.
I love motorcycling. This year, I got a brand new awesome bike. I love the sense of freedom and the art of riding skillfully.
Earlier this summer, in upstate New York on a country road, I was in a motorcycle accident. It was a beautiful night, I was driving carefully like always, and the next thing I knew I was slammed down on the road sliding to a stop with my bike next to me.
I was so lucky. Cars were around me and no one hit me. I was able to get up and get off the road. Someone helped me pick my brand new bike up.
So what happened? A child and her Dad were playing basketball in the driveway. The ball rolled out into my path and jammed underneath, instantly tipping me sideways. I called my wife and she came to get me. The man offered to keep my bike in his garage.
I realized I was going into shock. I also suspected that I had at least broken some ribs, since it was painful to breath. My arm and hand was swelling up and bleeding. I asked my wife to drive me to the hospital.
Once at the hospital, they triaged me in fairly quickly and I had a series of diagnostic x-rays, CT scans, and blood work. They diagnosed one broken rib, but my blood work was showing some troubling signs of pancreas damage. They urged me to be admitted.
Two days later, my blood markers looked better and they released me. I happily came home and began a slow recovery. My arm was completely purple. My rib hurt so much I could not get out of bed without horrific pain.
Now it is 2 months later and I'm mostly recovered. My bike is fixed and I'm riding it again, albeit with some trepidation.
Here's the thing: Accidents happen sometimes out of nowhere no matter how careful you are and how much you try to mitigate the risk. What saved me was having good protective gear, including a helmet, jacket and gloves. I can't imagine how much worse this would have been to have my skip scraped off without this equipment.
This summer there have been some hot days when I almost didn't wear protective clothing. I'm very glad I did anyway.
Feel free to contact me at: [email protected]
Thanks for listening,
-Don
[email protected]
Upstate New York, USA