After the Serious Accident

[jobob]

Great replies, everyone.

Have any of you been in a serious accident and went back to riding. What did you think, How did you handle it, did you feel guilty about having an expensive bike, etc?

Oh yeah. Get a cup of coffee and pull up a chair, jobob's going long.

I was in a bad crash over three years ago. I was out of work on full disability for four weeks, then on partial disability for another six weeks. I wore a back brace for three months, and needed follow-up care for my vertebrae compression fracture, the double vision I was experiencing, plus some PT for my whacked up shoulder. So yeah, I've been there.

The bills were ginormous, but I had a great insurance plan thru my employer -- we had a couple of different plans available to us and I had opted to take the pricier PPO plan, so I had to kick in a bit extra for the premiums every payday, but boy was it worth it.

So what's with this guilt over the hospital bill and the insurance?? You were in an accident, it's not like you meant to do this! This is the whole point of having medical insurance, you or your employer (or the combination, as in my case) pay into it so it is there if and when you need it.

Take a step back for a second. What if a co-worker, who by all appearances was a very healthy looking person, had a massive heart attack seemingly out of the blue and required emergency open-heart surgery and very lengthy hospitalization? (this actually happened to a co-worker of mine around the time of my own crash; ironically, it happened to our Director of HR, who managed our company's health insurance programs). Or what if a co-worker was involved in a very serious car accident that required extensive hospitalization & rehab?

What would be your reaction to hearing about your co-worker's misfortune? Would you think "Aw geeze, that bozo is costing our insurance plan all sorts of money, how dare that person be so stupid and selfish?". OF COURSE YOU WOULDN'T!!! Nor would anyone with a modicum of decency. Kind of ridiculous, isn't it, when you try to apply that kind of thinking towards someone else. So why are you thinking that way about yourself? Don't be silly, girl!! {gentle slap on the back of your head}

As for the expensive bike ... yeah, I had given myself a very expensive bike too. That was the bike I crashed, all of ten days after I received it. Luckily, the bike came thru with minimal damage (unlike me ) and once it was repaired it sat in my garage patiently waiting for me.

Face it, love, people sometimes crash their bikes. And a good many of those people are waaaay more experienced bike handlers than you or I. It happens. We do what we can to ride safely, and learn from our mistakes. But stuff happens. I deserved my expensive bike before my crash, and I darn well still deserved it afterwards!!! And you deserve your Ruby, don't go thinking otherwise.

As for getting back on the bike ... I had to wait about three months before I got the go-ahead from the Dr to s#!tcan my back brace and resume my normal activities. So I had a medically-mandated waiting period, as it were (heh, I was about to say there was a definite end date to this waiting period, but there actually wasn't; the Dr couldn't say precisely how long I'd have to wear the back brace, and even after many weeks he couldn't give me any definite schedule. After a couple of months I started to be a real pest, poor guy. )

That forced time off was probably a good thing for me, it made me look forward to when I could start riding again. Perhaps you have a similar waiting period as well -- could you be under Drs orders not to get back on the bike until xxx has healed or some sort of bandage or brace has been removed? If not, perhaps you should give yourself one (errr, a waiting period, not a bandage or a brace). A period of time where you simply do not ride, and not stress over the fact that you're not riding. A time out. During that time, you might find yourself longing to get back.

I took baby steps when I got back on my bike, at least initially. I think my biggest mistake was to try to get back too soon to the level I was before the crash. I had been training for a very challenging ride when I had my crash, and I went back into that same training program the following year -- unfinished business! -- but my head and heart weren't really into it the second time around. Oh well.

So if you do get back on your bike (and I hope you do, eventually), don't push yourself too hard. You don't have to prove anything to anyone, including yourself. Especially yourself.

I hope all my rambling helps you out some, kajero. Please don't beat yourself up over this! {hug}