The Accident
It’s been 1 week, 23 hours, and 30 minutes since the accident. It’s difficult to comprehend everything that has happened in that time. I should have been keeping a journal the whole time but I was not exactly mobile. Here goes my attempted at capturing the events.
The Accident
It all starts with the bumper of a white pickup truck. A white pickup truck is going to hit me. I was traveling straight and he was coming opposite me making a left turn across my lane of travel. I remember him stopping instead of turning and thinking that was odd. I waited, and waited as I approached the intersection, finally deciding that he was letting me go. He never saw me. I remember thinking I needed to stay up right or things were not going to go well. Then I was on the ground, rolling; and everything hurt. My back was excruciatingly painful as I waited for the EMT. A few times, I thought I might pass out it was so painful. When the ambulance arrived, they rolled me onto my back and that helped the pain some. I knew that I could move all of my extremities so I was not worried about my back being broken; I thought it was just my muscles. I didn’t know you could break your back without being paralyzed.
The Hospital
I was admitted to the ER where they evaluated me and took my neck brace off. At this point I was worried about contacting Brian and I was trying to work out what impact this would have on my life. My knee had started to hurt very badly and I knew something was wrong. Early on, I was silly enough to think I might have a bad case of bursitis. Brian called me from the airport and the ER personnel let me use my phone to talk to him. It was nice knowing he was on his way and I wouldn’t be alone. After a bunch of X-rays and a CT-scan, I was met by a neurosurgeon. This was probably the most scared I ever was. He explained that I had broken my back. I had a compression fracture of the L2. I wasn’t able to breathe until he said that surgery was not required. He explained the brace that I would need and that I would have to wear it for 3 months. At this point I’m thinking that I can wear the brace to work and probably even do trainer rides with it. I really had no idea. They admitted me into the trauma ward, where I would stay until my brace arrived.
Saturday (day 1)
Until the brace arrived, I was limited to complete bed rest. I ate in bed, I peed in bed, I did everything in bed. As horrible as it was, I kept thinking “at least I’m out of here when the brace arrives”. Overnight, my leg continued to swell and hurt. It wasn’t until the afternoon that I was able to get somebody to look at it. When the news came back, it wasn’t good. Not only did I have a broken back, but a broken leg too. I was scheduled for surgery on Monday, which meant I was not getting out of the hospital until Wed, maybe Thursday. This is when I officially lost it.
Sunday (day 2)
Brian’s mom got on a plane and we both breathed a small sigh of relief. Things calmed down and I started to take stock of the situation. Most of Sunday was spent on the phone and resting. Brian got his mom settled into the house late in the afternoon. With her watching the dogs, he was able to spend the night since my surgery was first thing in the morning. It was nice having him with me. Nighttime was the worst. Sleeping was so difficult since I could not move myself.
Monday -Wednesday
I was out of surgery by 9:30 and spend most of the morning in a drug-induced coma. My friends started showing up around 3:00 to see how I was doing and help when needed. Brian really needed some relief from being by my side so this gift from my friends was priceless. I finally was fitted for my back brace in the afternoon but had to wait for the neurosurgeon to approve the X-rays before I would be given the ok to get out of bed. The approval came Tuesday and I was so happy when the PT came to show me how to use my walker. It was harder than I thought I was concerned with how quickly I tired. I stopped the pain meds on Tuesday with hopes that I would spend Tuesday night at home. I had a ton of friends with me all day to help the time pass. Unfortunately, I was not to go home until Wednesday. I checked out at 10:00 and could not have been happier. I knew things would be very difficult but was up for the challenge (I hoped)
I have since realized how difficult this will really be. I cannot get out of bed by myself, which means I have to wake Brian up every time I have to use the restroom, or need a blanket, or whatever. The daytime is better and I’m much more independent. I still can’t cook anything or carry anything. I can’t lift anything heavy or bend forward. I’m learning new ways to do simple, everyday things. Right now, having a normal life seems very far away and my bike feels even farther. I miss moving and doing. My brain works far too fast to be held up like this.