Sunday

Something Changed

Swift...on the ground...pain...what happened? We were just finishing a ride to Woofdruff's Store and taking the bike trail home. David says a dangling limb caught me, lifted me off the bike and slammed me to the pavement. Gary telling me not to move, David going to get Gretchen and Laurie. Am I OK? Conscious, no bones sticking through skin, some scrapes, chest hurts, can't breathe easily.

An hour later Gretchen and I are in the Emergengy Room, the rescue squad giving the report to the nurse. A CAT scan shows I have a partially collapsed lung and I'll need to be admitted to the hospital. As I write this 10 days later, I'm getting a bit better each day. I no longer have the stabbing pain when I breathe deeply, and my chest is feeling more normal. A few more weeks and I should be back to full strength. In hindsight, I was very lucky; no head injury, no broken bones or back injury...just lucky. However, I now know what the term "physical trauma" means. I have experienced it once and have no desire to do it again!

"Something changed inside me ....", the opening line from a Sara Groves song describes what I feel subconsciously.....deep inside. I no longer want to ride a bicycle. After 44 years of riding a bicycle as an adult, tens of thousands of miles, I'm done. One would think that would be a difficult decision to make; particularly since so much of my riding is with close friends; Gretchen, the TOF Brothers and the Double Nickles. But it wasn't a difficult decision. In fact it wasn't a conscious decision at all. "Something changed inside me", deep inside, I'm different.

TOF Brothers

Last ride was 38.7 miles which gives me a final tally of 1,148 miles this year.

Double Nickles

 

 

1 comment:

  1. So sad you have to be going through this Tom. Heal Quickly and hope the next fun hobby is painless:}
    Love you, Jenny

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