recovering from accident on road bike/ reasons to wear a helmet

last sunday a friend and I were out riding a new route. There was a light cross breeze, but the tems were in the 60's and it was sunny and dry. We had done 45 out of about 65 miles. The last thing I remember is feeling good as I rode up over a higway bridge over the Brazos River. The next thing I came to, noticed that my forehead was bleeding on my glove and hearing my friend tell someone "she was unconscious for over 5 minutes."

Various flashes of paramedics, ambulance, friend assuring me that she would stay with my bike until my husband came to pick up my bike and then she would meet him and me at the hospital, ambulance ride, ER room techs and doctor, novocaine to the forehead, ct scan, chest xray and husband showing up in a panic etc.

A week later after total bed rest, pain meds and muscle relaxants I am feeling much better. I got the 13 external stitches taken out of my forehead today and am held together with butterfly strips over an interesting dueling type scar giving my right eyebrow a quirk. The two black eyes are almost cleared up, the swelling on my right cheek bone is nearly gone and all of the road rash on the right arm, hip, waist, thigh and knee is all scabbed over and bruises are changing from black and purple to yellow.

Today we celebrated by taking the bike up to the repair shop to get it checked out and bought me a new helmet. I start back at the gym with the trainer on Monday. Not sure how much I will be able to do but I will give it a big girl try. Monday afternoon I will pick up my bike and Tuesday I will try a slow gentle local ride with friend to see how everything works.

I am thankful that this time I was riding with someone instead of on my own, since last time I ended up riding 16 miles with broken ribs, not realizing they were broken and collapsed a lung. I am thankful that my helmet did its job and I am thankful that my husband was home and able to find me and my bike and that the paramedics responded quickly and the Er people were so knowledgeable.

Lessons I have learned Never ever ride without your helmet( although this one is in force all the time with me anyway.) It's a good thing to carry a cell phone even if you are riding with someone else since Len ended up using mine when her battery ran out. Paramedics and ER folk don't get enough respect or gratitude so the next time you see one, thank them and or buy them coffee or beer. Donate to your local paramedic crews and stop to offer help to a fallen biker ( thank you to kind passerby who found all the bits and pieces of my riding glasses and tossed them into the ambulance as they were leaving.)

Here to ride again another day thanks to the aid and help of many, and a good giro helmet.

marni

Oh, wow...all that WITH a helmet. You are so lucky to be OK. Phew! Glad you didn't suffer too much more than superficial damage. Take it easy getting back to riding.

Stories like this remind me that I am not being overly cautious by not riding alone...yet. Too much can go wrong, especially since I am such a noob.

Do you have any idea what happened? What did your friend witness?

Wow, marni, I'm glad you are here to tell us about it. Yikes! I hope you heal quickly and completely!

Rest up and feel better!

(((marni))) Get better soon!

Did anyone see what happened?

aagh :eek: I wish you patience to heal well and interesting scars :)

Rest up! Get well soon. Sounds awful, glad to hear it wasn't worse thanks to the helmet - and esp. glad to hear you're going to get back on the bike!

Glad to hear you weren't hurt any worse than you were! Hope you heal quickly and can play bikes again soon.

And, YAY HELMETS!

I am glad that you are recovering and the helmet saved you. I hate when I see people riding without one.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Take it as easy as you need to.

I'm glad you are basically OK and in good spirits, ready to get back out there!

Did you find out what happened?

Glad that you are feeling better, Marni. Your FB picture was scary! I don't ride down my 50' driveway without a helmet! Hope you are feeling good soon.

No I have no memory of what happened. the last thing I remember is riding up the bridge over the river. I presume that I was looking at the river or the river bank andlost my attention long enough to let my wheel drift off the edge and couldn't recover. There was a bit of a side breeze but not bad enough to have blown me around. I had stopped about 20 minutes earlier to have a mini luna bar and a couple of lorna doone shortbread cookies and 2 small snickers bites but I have never had any sort of weakenss, dizziness etc over a sugar surge.

My riding companion just saw me go off the side of the road and off of the bike and was so paniced and trying to do everything right that she can't really say either so it will all remain a great mystery.

Mentally gearing up for a session with trainer and then on stationary bike tomorrow- getting my eyes checked so I'll get new riding glasses as well.

Marni

Wow, glad it wasn't worse. Heal up fast.

Goodness, I am glad you are ok! Hope you are on the mend!

:eek:ouch! Sounds like you took a pretty hard hit... it's scary to think that you may never even know what happened, just riding along one minute and next thing you know you're all beat up in a hospital bed. Glad to hear you're ok. Get better soon and kudos for jumping right back on the horse!