ER Visits

[wannaduacentury]

I've been lots thru the years-mostly for stitches. The last time was a kitchen accident for me too. I was washing a glass and it broke and cut my thumb, 5 stitches that trip. on my dominate right hand. I can tell the nerves are still unattched at places, it feels weird to touch it.

[pyxichick]

All the posts about washing glasses etc. made me feel better about my own accidents.

My previous ER trip was also a kitchen incident. I was washing an Ulu knife (from Alaska, with a sort of half circle curvy blade) and my hand slipped and just hit the blade a tiny bit, but man, was that thing sharp!

My sister took me to the ER and watched them sew up my thumb, including the severed tendon.

She was going, "you should look, this is really cool."

I had a partial cast almost to my elbow and had to go to a hand therapist after it came off.

I got rid of that knife right away.

I'm considering giving up kitchen duties from now on...

[sandy45]

no bike ones. but gallblatter problems run on both sides of the family. 2 cousins and my sister all had emergency surgury at 21/22. i am 22 and had a galstone got stuck and was in the ER for 13 hours. they said the pain is equal to a heart attack!

DH has been in the ER twice for bike stuff...a broker shoulder and cracked ribs. the cracked ribs happened the day he was suppose to meet my dad. showed up 4 hours late! luckly my dad has broken so many bones he let him pass cause he cracked 2 ribs....lol

[annie]

Reading these posts makes me think I am some kind of a disaster! (And I am only going to get into ER visits for ME - If I included my kids and DH, this post could take me all night!)

As a child :

ER and stitches - in my head from my brother pushing me into the corner of a table (still have the scar under my hair)

ER and stitches - from a classmate and a PENCIL going into my hand in the 2nd grade

Neither of these seemed like a big deal to me - but I'll bet it did to my Mom!!

As an adult :

ER and yet more stitches in my head from chasing after my oldest child (then only about 18 months) and crashing head-first into a window sill. Still have the scar under my hairline.

Sept. 2005. ER for 5 stitches in middle finger of right hand, sliced open while helping son # 3 rebuilding computer. (Did you ever realize how SHARP the metal sides of a computer tower can be??) Still do not have any feeling in that finger. I think the nerve was sliced. Hoping for regrowth someday.

Bike-Related:

Broken Pelvis from following too closely in a paceline ( 9-09-01). Taken to ER on body board. Kept overnight plus one day. Absolutely HORRIBLE week from He** as I lay helpless, just home from the hospital, watching the TV and all the horrendous 9-11 events unfold.) Diagnosed with concussion, too.

Feb. 2002 - Wiped out on bike after being rear-ended by another bike rider. Concussion and minor road rash. Taken to ER for head x-ray. SCARY! Dam*! Don't need to have brain shook up so soon again!

Oct. 2003. Close encounter with a car. Choice - Get hit by car/take the curb.
I took the curb. My bike stopped. I did not. (law of motion in action!). I kept going. Slid on my face (mostly) and stopped at a brick wall. Called my DH (tho' I don't remember doing so and repeatedly asked him on the way to the ER how DID he know where to find me). Yet another concussion and major road rash on my face. (Denise - You are brave to show your photos. Maybe I will show mine sometime.) I looked much worse than I felt. Still have some slight scarring, but I feel extremely lucky to have gotten off with so few injuries.

August, 2004. On RAGBRAI. In Fort Dodge, IA. Hit by a hit-and-run-driver when going to my campgrounds after the evening entertainment. It was my first year self-supported. I credit my panniers with saving me from worse injury. I was hit on the rear pannier and I honestly think that absorbed most of the impact. Woke up on the side of the road. The rider following me witnessed the whole thing. Called 911. Ambulance came, whisked me to the ER. Had x-rays. Was there for over 4 hours. Finally told that nothing was broken and I could leave. Leave???? I had no bike. It was trashed. I knew perfectly well I had been unconcious for some time....... Thank the PTB's that the person who'd witnessed the "accident" had friends in town that took me in for the night and rescued my bike and all my "stuff." That's RAGBRAI for you. People take care of each other. Anyway, I called home, arranged for a ride home the next day, and came back and healed up. VERY sore, but not broken or sprained ankle. Still have the mark where the pedal ripped into my ankle. Weird, but it's almost a mark of pride............ it's a star shape. When I look at it, I think, F***! I could have quit riding then. I'd had so many accidents in the past few years. So Many People, including people I care for deeply, thought I should quit biking. Yet I didn't. I couldn't. As long as I am able to bike, I will do so. It is so much apart of who I am. I had ridden, seriously, for over 15 years, and never had ANY major injuries or accidents. It finally caught up with me. I still wouldn't change a thing. I continue to ride and honestly, I am very safety-conscious, but haven't really changed the way I ride or where I ride. Life is short and oh so capricious. I will ride my bike and be happy.

Sorry to get so philosophical!!! Its late. At night. I should be sleeping. I don't post much........ it seems everyone else says what I would say before I get a chance to say it. And that is great! I feel almost related to many of you wonderful women of TE. Ride on, Ladies. Keep posting. I will join in when I have something to share.

annie

[littlegrasshopp]

none bike related.....

as a child I had a five year "track" where I broke a bone each year. So had visits for both wrists, ankle and head.

At 15 - a school bus ran a stop sign and my family hit it..several times. I broke more bones than I didn't. Spent a long time in the hospital and missed most of a year in highschool. Still don't have a lot of memories from before the accident. Patchy childhood now at best.

From 22-27 Martial arts...4 concussions and several broken toes and fingers.

Recently - infections of lung, ear, sinus, & throat. It came on so fast that one minute I just felt I had a cold - 20 minutes later I was in horrible PAIN because my right ear felt like it was swelling closed. I couldn't hear a THING! When it started in my left ear I ran to the ER. LOTS of drugs and 4 days later I was finally feeling better again.

[horsemom]

Once while gardening, I stood up to answer a question my husband asked, went to stick the garden fork in the ground, and it went through my foot!! Right through a leather work boot and out the bottom of my foot! I pulled it out and went inside where veterinarian hubby looked at it, laughed at me (ok, I was laughing too) and cleaned it a little. I put my boot back on and went out to finish what I was doing, but it got annoying sqishing around with blood in my boot.

The next morning it hurt like a bear and started to get red lines going up my foot and ankle. I took myself to the ER and told them about it, the nurse casually put me in a room and left, and I took off my shoe and sock. Over an hour later she came back, took one look at my foot, said "oh my" and put me in a wheelchair, fast tracking me to a curtained area where the doctor saw me immediately.

I had to spend the night at the hospital on IV antibiotics. When I called my husband to tell him, he said "that seems a little excessive" Yikes!!! I have a little funny scar on the top of my foot to remember it by...

Laura

[Haudlady]

Oh - what an awful thread! Somehow, I just had to keep reading anyway... Let's see:

1) my horse stepped on my foot and then slid off (nothing broken)... I think I was ten or so.

2) I hit my head on a beam in my barn while throwing hay (last summer).

3) I was twenty or so (ten years ago) - my horse kicked me - but it wasn't his fault, I swear! After eight weeks of stall rest following colic surgery, I was allowed to let him out daily for an hour... his first day out, he was so excited and "full of it" that when I unsnapped the lead he whirled, spun, and kicked out in joy! Um, I whirled, spun, and kept upright by holding the fence. Broken hip.

Yes - I kept the horse; he was happy and healthy for another seven years. I recovered nicely except for some arthritis and occasional "skipping" in the joint.

What amazed me is that the ER, for some reason, didn't think it was necessary to x-ray my hip! My DH (boyfriend at the time) had to insist - I was a little out of it. I still don't understand that one.

4) I went once for my DH, who was hit by a car while cycling. The bike was totalled, and poor DH had a sprained ankle and a lot of abrasion. Thankfully, nothing worse. I will NEVER FORGET that awful phone call.