New here, had accident

[Gwen]

Hello everyone,
I joined here some time ago but haven't introduced myself. I'm 56 (!) years old and I've been road riding on and off since forever. My current bike is a Giant OCRc2 and goes like the wind. I retired the old Cannondale about a year ago. It felt like it weighed more than I do, but the old girl served me well for years. I'll probably sell it.

I've been grounded for a month now because of a nasty accident. Anyone who lives around Los Angeles knows the beach bike path that goes from south of Malibu down to Redondo Beach. It is 25 miles. About midway is a cutoff that runs along Ballona Creek into Culver City and beyond. I access the Ballona path in Culver City, about five miles from the beach. It goes under several underpasses. Well, I got on the path around 7:30am and was zipping along (no tourists during the week, I won't ride it on weekends.) My hubby accuses me of riding like a teenager, my reply to which is "so this is a bad thing?" I was on the downhill side of the Sawtelle underpass and passed a young fool who was plugged into his ipod and riding without a helmet. I was going around 20mph (like a teenager?) and as I cut back onto my side of the road I hit something, went over the handlebars and was out cold. Thank gawd for helmets! Without it I'd be dead. I am an obsessive road watcher and I actively search for potholes and road junk but I didn't see this one at all. The good fellow whom I passed called the paramedics and they hauled me off to the emergency room. The medics were astounded that I didn't break any bones. Maybe the 25 years worth of calcium supplements paid off. Anyway, I ended up with a nasty concussion and bashed the entire left side of my body. My face looked like hamburger. I'm recovering, although the accident awakened some old back injuries and created what will probably become a chronic shoulder problem (am getting cortisone injections, yuck, doing physical therapy, etc). My real problem however is my poor brain. I would really appreciate some input from anyone who unfortunately has any experience with brain bang-ups. The scan didn't indicate any serious damage to the brain, but the poor dear seems to have checked out for a very long vacation. The short term memory is gone, did I already tell you that? ;-} I can't get back up on the bike until the dizziness and headaches stop and some of the body pain subsides. The good doctors are infuriatingly reluctant to give me any sort of time horizon on this brain garbage, so here I sit getting more and more antsy and feeling my muscle strength whither.

Input welcome, good ladies. Ya gotta have a sense of humor, ya know.

Gwen

[Trekhawk]

Hi Gwen - welcome to TE. Sorry to hear about your accident but pleased to hear you are on the mend.
You need to talk to Denise Goldberg she had an accident awhile back that sounds a bit like yours.

[Aint Doody]

Take it easy and don't be in a hurry! I was out of commission from 7 bleeders in my brain for 6 weeks. I wasn't to do anything that would get my heart rate up--I'm sure that's what they want for you, too. I also had to stay at home from work for a week--that was great! (Except I got mighty tired of watching television.) You will heal--I was 56 when I had my crash--I've made it to 57 just fine--a few scars where my glasses cut my forehead. You will find that you'll now yell at everybody you see who's not wearing a helmet!

[DeniseGoldberg]

Gwen -
Ow! It sounds like you have kept your sense of humor as you work to get over your awful crash.

I'm one of the other TE gals who made it through a bad crash... I also had a crash with a brain injury, but I was very lucky in that my short-term memory problems resolved themselves in what seems to be a shorter amount of time. I had no short term memory at the beginning of my recovery, and I wish I could tell you how long it took before that resolved, but I can't. I know that people who visited me in the hospital told me that I asked them the same question over and over and over again. I also know that I was very unhappy with the woman in OT (in the rehab hospital) who was trying to have me go through some standard tests. I behaved myself during our first session, but my brain doesn't work for those tests when I'm well, and the second day I just stopped participating. (Yes, you're right, I was bad!) The short term memory problem did go away though. I was out of work for probably 5 weeks, then worked from home for a couple of weeks, then split time between working at home and going in to the office for a bit.

I also had a problem with dizziness. Mine was diagnosed as post traumatic benign vertigo. I had this problem when I changed position from vertical to horizontal (or the reverse). That took quite a number of months to go away. I did go to an otolaryngologist about it, but at the time I saw him he said it was too early to treat it and that I just needed to wait. By the time he was ready to refer me to a neurologist who specialized in the condition it had started to improve and I opted to wait it out. Hmm... I just looked back through my journal, and I was reporting bad dizzy days through August, a good three months after the accident. I had been hoping to take a biking vacation in October - 5 months after my accident in May 2004. One of the docs I was seeing told me at the end of July that October was probably too soon, and he was right. I still took a vacation in October, but I did not take it with my bike.

One thing that I found helpful was to track both my dizzy days and the number of hours of sleep I was getting (another problem area at the time). I kept track of both in a spreadsheet, but a piece of paper would work just as well.

Biking? I was back on my bike 6 weeks after the accident. I waited until I was cleared by the orthopedic doc (I also had a pelvic fracture). And then it took me the rest of the year and into 2005 to work back to my normal biking shape. In the meantime, I spent quite a bit of time walking too. I was very lucky that my dizziness did not show itself when I rode, so I felt fine about getting back out on my bike.

In case you're interested, I kept a journal about my crash and recovery. It's at http://denise2004crash.crazyguyonabike.com.

Be kind to yourself as you work back to what you would consider normal.

--- Denise

[Grog]

Gwen, welcome to TE!

I'm sorry about your accident. I can't really help with personal experience since I've been lucky enough not to have a similar accident happen to me.

My partner's dad (60 yo), a long-time cyclist, had a major crash going down a hill last Summer and broke many bones. He also got dizziness from some ill-located bones in his inner ear (different to Denise's condition I think). It was pretty tough for a while but it's starting to get better now and he's starting to ride again. From what I understood of what his doctors say, he's probably adapting to the new inner ear configuration. I heard of another treatment that's almost too weird to be true, but it is (both weird and true): they sort of throw you around (I'm exagerating but not that much) in hope of moving the little bones back into place. A friend of mine who's a medical clerk worked with a doctor who practiced this once, and it's documented in the literature. This was not really an option for my partner's dad because of his broken bones (!!!).

Good for your keeping your sense of humour notwithstanding this annoying accident. I hope you feel better soon, and I look forward to reading more from you on TE.

Cheers!

[DeniseGoldberg]

I heard of another treatment that's almost too weird to be true, but it is (both weird and true): they sort of throw you around (I'm exagerating but not that much) in hope of moving the little bones back into place.

Weird, but it's true. That was mentioned to me as an option, but the doc recommended that I not do it. He said there was too big a chance that it wouldn't work for me, plus apparently you can't lay flat for 72 hours after that procedure.

[mimitabby]

Hello everyone,

I've been grounded for a month now because of a nasty accident.
Input welcome, good ladies. Ya gotta have a sense of humor, ya know.

Gwen

Gwen
I am glad you're alive and feeling good enough to write.
About the short term memory; two things unrelated to brain injury can cause
part of this: pain and pain meds.

pain can also make you tired all by itself!

I hope you heal fast!
mimi

[CorsairMac]

Gwen: I'm glad to hear you're recovering OK and thank goodness the accident wasn't as serious as it sounded like it coulda been. As for riding like a teenager - you mean we shouldn't??.......as in: maybe I should be riding a bent? (with no hands teehee)

anyway I had something else I wanted to tell you but I can't remember right now...........

sending healing thoughts your way my friend!! Heal slow and live to ride fast another day!


and get a new helmet!

[Gwen]

Wow, you are a great bunch of girls. Thanks for all the good advice. I've been meaning to get involved here for some time. I guess I could have found something better for an intro, but hey, I get points for drama.

I posted some photos of my battered mug. One was taken shortly after the accident, the other one was taken today. Hmmmm.... I really need to lose some lbs.
http://morganmeeker.com/bike_accident.html

I think the best thing is that you are giving me some much needed perspective. I've been anxious, angry and impatient. What!!! You mean I can't heal immediately!!!! But I'm powerful and immortal!!!
No, huh. Ok
Many thanks everybody. I'll keep you posted. And I'll start chiming in on other topics.
Gwen