My First Bike Wreck - CAUTION bloody photos

Since I started riding 3 years ago I have often heard people say it's not a matter of if you will wreck, but when.  For 3 years I have been accident free...yes I fell while standing still a few times, when getting used to my clipless pedals, but that was not a wreck.

Yesterday changed that.

You might remember  a month ago or so I posted about getting my new tri bike.  I was a little intimidated about riding it because it is quite different than a road bike.  The weather in Kansas City has been pretty crappy so far this Spring and I hadn't gotten a chance to ride outside.  On Monday, I finally took the bike out to an empty parking lot and rode it for about 15 minutes to get comfortable.

Yesterday, I was working from home, and it was beautiful.  Sunny and 70s.  It was perfect, so I thought I would go for a short ride around my neighborhood.  It would give me another chance to get comfortable on the bike with minimal traffic. 

I had been riding about 15 minutes and was feel pretty good. I was moving in and out of the aerobars, changing gears and riding really smoothly.  I was loving it.  I rounded a corner and was on a short straight stretch when I saw a truck.  I immediately got off the aerobars, put my hands near the brakes and started slowing down. I was watching him, just being cautious and then he suddenly turned left into a neighborhood right in front of me.  I slammed on my brakes, and my front tire came to an immediate stop causing the back tire to flip completely over my head.  I'm sure I stopped to abruptly, but think I did what anyone would do.  My instincts kicked in ans said...get the bike stopped!

I got up, shaken, but feeling ok.  He immediately got out of his car and ran over to me.  "Oh my gosh, are you ok?  I didn't even see you I am so sorry!"  He was freaking out, and kept saying your bleeding are you ok?  I told him I thought I was ok, just scratched up, and I only lived about a half mile away.  It's weird how you react in a situation like that.  I was shaking all over, but got up and rode home.  I even paused my Garmin after the accident!!!  I honestly didn't think I was hurt too bad, just scraped up some.

Anyway, after I got home I decided to shower and get the blood washed off, it was then I realized just how bad my left wrist was hurting.  It didn't seem to be swelling, but it was very painful.  I had road rash on my left shoulder from shoulder to elbow.  Both hands are scraped pretty bad, I'm missing part of a fingernail, and I have 3 huge bruises on my left thigh, but my wrist HURTS!

So, I made a trip to the Urgent Care clinic for good measure.  They took x-rays and I "might" have a broken wrist...WTH??  How can they not tell.  He said one x-ray showed a thin line across the top of the wrist bone which could indicate a break, but was inconclusive.  He said he was treating it as a break and soft casting it.  I am to follow-up in a week with a Sports Med Dr.  If it's feeling better it's probably just a bad sprain, if not, I may need to have a follow-up x-ray or MRI to determine if it's broken.....

This sucks.  I'm just hopeful it's a sprain. 

Just another reminder to please, please, please watch out for bikers.  This could have been much worse.

Road Rash on my shoulder

One of my scraped palms, the other one looks just the same

Ouch...this hurt.

My hopefully temporary cast.

I have 3 huge bruises on my hips and thighs that look worse than these, but I'll spare you those parts of my anatomy.  I also later found a small bruise along my hairline on the left side as well.  I didn't realize I had hit my head.  Definitely a good thing I was wearing my helmet as I always do.  The helmet I'm sure is what caused the bruise.

Now I'm just ticked!  I had finally had a really good injury free period and was really making some gains in my training, weight loss, and strength training.  Now much of that is gone.  Even if it's just a sprain I'm sure I won't be able to swim or bike for several weeks.

Jim and I have a half marathon on Sat too....still not sure about that one.  We shall see.

Man typing one handed is hard!