One Flew Over the Giant

As most of you know, I love riding my bicycle.  I have two nice bicycles made by the company "Giant".  In the past, I used to think of myself as invincible while on my bicycle.  I have been run over multiple times by cars and have always come out unscathed.  I have been known to update my status on Facebook, tweet about interesting topics on Twitter, send SMS (text) messages back and forth with Jeanine, all while riding on my bicycle, and most of this with no hands on the handlebar.

Wednesday evening at about 5:30pm when I left work, I hit the road for home like I always do.  I was riding by the park going around 20 - 25 MPH when my phone rang. I picked it up with my right hand and noticed it was a reminder.  I saw that I needed to stop up ahead, and instead of putting the phone back and using both hands, I decided to stop one-handed (with my left hand) instead.  For those of you that ride a bike, you'll know that the left brake is for the front tire.  So here I am pedaling along at 20-some miles per hour with a 205 pound payload (I need to lay off the donuts), and for whatever strange reason, I decided to grip the brake hard, which locked up the front wheel and threw me over the front of the bike. I got some road rash on my left side including a nice bump above my left eye.  A lady up ahead who witnessed this, rolled down her window and said "You really need to be more careful.".  I said "yes ma'am" and then she drove off.

When I biffed it, I had dropped my phone and lost the battery cover and battery.  I had to search around for a while, but eventually found all the parts and got my phone working again.  I did a quick look at the bike, and everything seemed OK.  I started to ride home and felt pain in both knees and my left shoulder.  Other then that, though... I felt fine.  I got home and told Jeanine about it, then ate some dinner.  While eating, my right arm started to stiffen up, and I couldn't extend it all the way.  Jeanine palpated it, but I didn't have any sharp pain.  A little later, I couldn't rotate my wrist, so Jeanine decided we should go in and get it looked at.  PMC has a "Convenient Care Clinic" that is open after hours and keeps you from having to go to the ER.  Unfortunately, they couldn't do much for me and scheduled an X-Ray for the next morning.

Thursday morning I go to work early, and the X-Ray tech brutally contorted my poor arm into the most painful configurations I could imagine! After finishing up, it was determined that I had a radial-head fracture.  I was referred to an Orthopedic specialist, but had to wait until the following morning to get looked at.

This morning (Friday), Jeanine and I traveled to Colorado Springs, and after being looked at, I was told I had a 'good' fracture.  I don't need surgery or a cast. I will continue to use the sling, but I need to move my joint around to keep it from locking up on me.

I have learned to never use my phone again while riding my bicycle.  I had several people say "I told you so".  Hopefully I don't slip back into old habits...

Here is one X-Ray showing the non-displaced radial head fracture.  See if you can find it. ;-)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="779" caption="Ouch!"][/caption]