Ow! (From Hilary This Time)

So, tonight was the night that the blueberry place is open til 7. So when I finished signing out patients to the overnight team just before 6, I called Alex to say that I just had one thing more to do and then I would come home and meet him and we could go off to the farm with Brynna.

The timing was going to be tight, so I finished my one task, then ran down the stairs and through the clinic to jump on my bike. I zoomed home, caught all the lights, and was on target for a personal best time from hospital to apartment. Then, turning the final corner and thinking "wow! I'm home even sooner than I expected! Nice!" I caught sight of some sand, swerved to avoid it, went careening into the curb, and got tossed on my head.

Luckily, I was wearing my helmet (I tell my patients to do it, so I always do it too), and it absorbed the impact with a nice satisfying crunch, so my temple got only a little bit scratched up and bruised. Without the helmet, I think we would have been heading directly back to the hospital for some suturing and possibly a CT scan. Once I woke up, that is. But thanks to the helmet, I didn't even see stars. I sat right up, cursed in a most unladylike manner, and limped the last 200 feet home.

Then I sent Alex and Brynna off to pick blueberries while I cleaned myself up.

My hands got the worst of it, with a bunch of skin ripped off in little patches all over (the hands were the only loose part until the impact jarred my feet free of the clip-in pedals). I skinned a knee, a hip, and an ankle, and I'm going to have a bruise on my head for a few days, too. Alex has very kindly been helping me open and carry things all evening.

Helmets, people. Wear 'em. I won't be back on my bike until I can get a new one, since they're done after they absorb an impact. This is one place where re-using is not the way to go! I'm hoping to run to the bike store tomorrow evening so I can ride on Sunday (I'm on call all day Saturday).