Bike Accident :-(

[kajero]

I am so glad you are as okay as you are. I hope you heal so you are perfect again. This in no way was your fault.
I love reading your posts! (well, maybe I could have done without this one.)

And I agree, make sure there is a police report. You may get them to cover dental work. I have home insurance that covers something like that.

I am sending wishes for you to heal quickly.

[ny biker]

Re: dental insurance, it was many years ago but when I had a wisdom tooth removed by an oral surgeon it was covered by my medical insurance rather than dental. So if you end up needing an oral surgeon, you might have coverage. But I hope it's not necessary!

[Sky King]

Ouch, ouch, ouch. Sending positive vibes your way. Accidents like that are always hard aren't they. As you noted, thankfully the little girl was okay as I expect you would be even more traumatized if she'd also been hurt. Hoping once your swelling goes down your mouth and teeth will be okay, just had friends visit the Mexico dental town(spacing on the name) over the winter (on my list in the future) seemed to have gone well.

[IBrakeforPastry]

I'm so sorry Emily! I hope you heal completely and fully.

As far as insurance goes, sometimes medical covers dental problems if they're injury/trauma related.

Rest up!

[emily_in_nc]

All,

Thanks so much for your kind and encouraging words. Sheila, your experience especially gave me hope that I might get out of this without jaw surgery, so thank you for sharing it. I have done some research, and it does appear that jaw surgery from trauma, not for cosmetic reasons, is likely to be covered by health insurance. That would be great if the need arises.

No, no brain trauma. I'm just the same me. No headaches or confusion, etc. once the initial heavy-duty painkillers (which I was every so thankful for) wore off. Thank the gods for this. No neck or back pain either. Again, very grateful.

My bike is also fine! It's tougher than me.

The sheriff came, and we told him what happened, but we did not file a police report. I would not try to make the kid's parents pay for this; it's just not in my nature. It was an accident, and I am afraid if we tried to prove fault, I would have to swear that I was not exceeding the 10 mph speed limit in the campground. I can't swear to that. I honestly don't know what my speed was.

We paid $100 to take a cab from the hospital back to the campground, as we don't have a tow'd vehicle, and it was quite a ways out. No telling what the overall hospital bill will be, but we do have a good ACA plan (thank you Obamacare!!!!!), and supposedly the max out of pocket in one year per person is $4500. That would not be fun but is doable for us, thankfully. I am so relieved that I had my DH change out my bike gearing recently at a cost of < $100, instead of buying the new bike I would have loved. This would have been much more traumatic in that case!

We do try to avoid riding where we know there will be children, just like you do, Crankin. They are indeed unpredictable. We never rode the Florida bike paths on Saturdays and only very rarely on a Sunday morning. This was just a cool-down after a nice ride outside the campground, on the road.

I appreciate everyone's support!

[Catrin]

OMG, I just read this! So sorry this happened to you, glad you're feeling a bit better, and I do hope that you don't hit that max out of pocket!

While my own face plant 2 years ago at work (that lead to the knee surgery) broke my nose somehow I avoiding doing any damage to teeth of jaw and looking back am unsure how I was that fortunate. Even my broken nose wasn't traumatic - though my face looked really bad for a bit.

Hopefully the child's parents will look after her more in the future and pay close attention to your neck for a bit. My mtb crash induced significant neck injury took several days to so any symptoms (ok, there were other hurting bits taking my attention away from my neck), but if you've not had any by now then you've hopefully missed that bullet as well. Relax, take care of yourself, and keep us posted.

[shootingstar]

This is quite difficult for you Emily! Hopefully you'll have that whole jaw area and teeth looked after for normality, without huge costs beyond what you predict.
Were you conscious when the impact occurred? I am wondering if you had a small concussion also. The impact seems enough. What did the neurological assessments provide for you by doctor?
Keep us posted!

(When another adult cyclist crashed into me on a bike path, I was actually unconscious for several hrs....even though my eyes were wide open, I walked abit and was talking/repeating myself. My partner didn't realize I was "unconscious" until I was transported by ambulance to hospital. So I temporarily lost my short-term memory for a few hrs.. I have no memory of the actual collision, ambulance transport, CT body scan.... In a way, I'm glad I have no traumatic injury flashbacks..)