Kevin Daly
YES I ran the fatty over!!
Oh where to start; I'm OK! I had all my gear on. I am pretty sure I am in as good a shape as I am because of it but I hurt like a mo-fo. I am running low on pain drugs, which scares me about as much as talking to my insurance company.
So I went to SE OH this past Wednesday, it was beautiful. Roads were clean and dry. I was on US 78 headed West and nearing the miners museum (the one with the big huge drag line shovel. It was about 1:30pm, low 70's. My buddy **** and I were cruising at maybe 50 MPH and I was about 50 yards ahead of **** (so you know we were going slow). A gentle breeze came up and blew what must have been millions of of beetles out of the trees and over the road. I wont go so far as to say it was freaky but it was definitely attention getting.
At any rate, that was when I stopped paying attention to the road, must have been for only a split second. Unfortunately it was right at the entrance of a right hander. I managed to break at the entrance where I should have leaned. I would say I target fixated but not at this point; I was still looking above the road and for some strange reason I simply could not get my eyes were they belonged. about the time I crossed the yellow line I had my eyes down and I could see my trajectory was into a grass field essentially unobstructed given that I still had no lean on the bike I calmly decided to just head into the grass and turn around. at this point I was fixated on the grass and knew I was going in. I never really had a sense of speed until it was all over, but I left the road doing maybe 20 mph.
Unfortunately, there was the obligatory large hidden bump which essentially stopped the front tire's forward movement and sent the bike vertical and me through the screen. I have no idea how high I was but I am pretty sure I left the ground immediately upon hitting the grass and I came to a rest about 20 feet from there. I had a single impact on my left shoulder. The bike apparently landed on the left front cowling. This compressed the front of the bike in and over to the right. I am also concerned that the forks took a big hit and are not right. I am sure the adjuster will tell me they are fine.
But enough about the bike. I hear the crunch of impact quite well and it took a few minutes of going over the basics of post accident before I was confident to take my helmet off and get up. I would have stayed on the ground but given that we were in BFE I was more concerned with getting out of there. after a few minutes some people came by and assisted. a few minutes later a cop then a few minutes after that the meat wagon. They got me in then checked my body out. I told them that my ribs hurt and they tested them for fractures and said that they probably weren't broken and had they been I probably wouldn't have been up and walking around. But I elected to take the wagon to the hospital and that turned out to be a wise choice. I was starting to observe some visual distortions which made me think I had a concussion.
the paramedics strapped me to a back board which was utterly excruciating but what can you do; 25 miles to the nearest hospital. CT scan came back with 8 broke ribs on the left side and a partially collapsed lung. The lung was good enough that they did not try to re inflate it so no tubes thankfully.
Well its nap time. Any good advice on how to sleep with broken ribs?
Oh and PS, anyone who tells you laughing with broken ribs is the most painful experience ever, obviously did not get switched to Dilaudid which has the wonderful side effect of causing extreme nausea and vomiting. Needless to say I aim to have words with the doctor about that choice!
So I went to SE OH this past Wednesday, it was beautiful. Roads were clean and dry. I was on US 78 headed West and nearing the miners museum (the one with the big huge drag line shovel. It was about 1:30pm, low 70's. My buddy **** and I were cruising at maybe 50 MPH and I was about 50 yards ahead of **** (so you know we were going slow). A gentle breeze came up and blew what must have been millions of of beetles out of the trees and over the road. I wont go so far as to say it was freaky but it was definitely attention getting.
At any rate, that was when I stopped paying attention to the road, must have been for only a split second. Unfortunately it was right at the entrance of a right hander. I managed to break at the entrance where I should have leaned. I would say I target fixated but not at this point; I was still looking above the road and for some strange reason I simply could not get my eyes were they belonged. about the time I crossed the yellow line I had my eyes down and I could see my trajectory was into a grass field essentially unobstructed given that I still had no lean on the bike I calmly decided to just head into the grass and turn around. at this point I was fixated on the grass and knew I was going in. I never really had a sense of speed until it was all over, but I left the road doing maybe 20 mph.
Unfortunately, there was the obligatory large hidden bump which essentially stopped the front tire's forward movement and sent the bike vertical and me through the screen. I have no idea how high I was but I am pretty sure I left the ground immediately upon hitting the grass and I came to a rest about 20 feet from there. I had a single impact on my left shoulder. The bike apparently landed on the left front cowling. This compressed the front of the bike in and over to the right. I am also concerned that the forks took a big hit and are not right. I am sure the adjuster will tell me they are fine.
But enough about the bike. I hear the crunch of impact quite well and it took a few minutes of going over the basics of post accident before I was confident to take my helmet off and get up. I would have stayed on the ground but given that we were in BFE I was more concerned with getting out of there. after a few minutes some people came by and assisted. a few minutes later a cop then a few minutes after that the meat wagon. They got me in then checked my body out. I told them that my ribs hurt and they tested them for fractures and said that they probably weren't broken and had they been I probably wouldn't have been up and walking around. But I elected to take the wagon to the hospital and that turned out to be a wise choice. I was starting to observe some visual distortions which made me think I had a concussion.
the paramedics strapped me to a back board which was utterly excruciating but what can you do; 25 miles to the nearest hospital. CT scan came back with 8 broke ribs on the left side and a partially collapsed lung. The lung was good enough that they did not try to re inflate it so no tubes thankfully.
Well its nap time. Any good advice on how to sleep with broken ribs?
Oh and PS, anyone who tells you laughing with broken ribs is the most painful experience ever, obviously did not get switched to Dilaudid which has the wonderful side effect of causing extreme nausea and vomiting. Needless to say I aim to have words with the doctor about that choice!
