So where do I begin….
Thursday, 5 May 2011.
It was a normal Thursday on my way home from work. As I was passing the traffic I saw a car wanting to turn into the oncoming traffic lane. I stopped to allow him to go, but he didn’t go, so I assumed he was letting me go. As I started to go, I saw the car going as well – clearly he had not seen me. I had 2 options 1: Break hard and hope I don’t go straight into the car 2: swerve. I opted to swerve, but saw the corner of the car in front of me, there was not enough room with both of us moving. I scraped along the corner of the car before I realized that I was air born. I remember seeing pieces fly below me as I feared that my bike was rolling and would be ruined (just as I see in bike racing when the bike goes flying). I hit the ground and rolled, but wasn’t sure if I should close my eyes, or just watch and wait, but either way I was powerless. Eventually I stopped on the side of the road and could see stars everywhere. “just wait until the stars go away, then get your bike and get home, your fine”, this is what I thought before I people getting out their cars infront and behind me. I looked down and saw my left glove was off and a bump was developing along with swelling. As I looked behind me I could see my left shoe in the road where I had hit the car…”I need to get home before any pain sets in, I need to run tonight”.
Thinking back, I question if I hit the car with my knee, and lost my shoe and glove with that impact, before I hit the ground, or did I jump???
The people around me asked if I was ok and if I needed an ambulance, or go to the hospital. I replied that I was fine and just want to go home. Somewhere in the commotion I took my glove and helmet off, much to the protest of the people around me. Together the people decided that I was going to hospital and they will call an ambulance. The one guy asked for a contact number, to which I calmly gave him my moms number. I turned around and saw my bike up the driveway, “I will not leave until I know he is safe”. A little while later my mom and dad arrived and took down the drivers details. The ambulance took a while to arrive, but when they did the guys were professional, by putting out cones, putting me in a stretcher, taking vitals, and even using the emergency lights.
I was taken straight through to a ward in causality, before a doctor came to see me. My back and neck were examined, but I felt no pain or stiffness. My hand by now was swollen and becoming numb, but the doctor didn’t seem to be too concerned – all I really wanted was pain killers. Before I was sent for x-rays I informed the doctor that my knee and hit were sore, but I knew it was not serious, nothing compared to my hand. The x-rays took some time, and the images of my hand did not look very good to me. When I got taken back to the ward, I was asked if I was able to walk, which was fine, and then I got told to go home as there wasn’t anything broken.
Friday, 6 May 2011
I was told to not go to work, so I stayed at home and worked as much as possible. My hand was sore and icing it seemed to make the swelling worse. I decided that I need to forget the pain, and use my hand as much as possible and hope that it gets better.
By 4 o’clock by mom had gotten the report from the hospital and we found that I had 2 oblique fractures. We decided to go the the hospital to see if there is anything that needs to be done. A doctor on duty looked at the x-rays and confirmed there were fractures, but that they were too serious and need to be operated on. I felt like crying, it was like a fear coming true…the doctor said that my hand was too swollen and would need to wait until Tuesday for the operation. A half cast got put on in order to immobilise my hand to prevent further damage.
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