Bike Crash

Ok. It's been a few days. I had several posts written that I was ready to put up but then I got a call that put all of this on the back burner. My wife Emily had fallen on her bike and was at the emergency room.

Ok, before you freak out like I did, she was mostly fine. No broken bones or serious trauma. Still, I was in Carlsbad with a bike and needed to go home before going to see her so that I could get a car to take her bike home. So I rode home to the train station and called a very good friend of mine whose husband (also a good friend) does a lot of bicycling and they have a bike rack on the roof of their one car. She was kind enough to pick me up from the train station and give me an my bike a ride home (thanks Deanna!!!). I then changed very quickly, got the direction to the hospital, grabbed my keys and ran out the door.

Here is what happened (probably more interesting than what I did): She was riding home by her normal route and during the short, but steep, downhill section her bike got out from under her and she slid on her right arm and leg. A nice woman who was walking in the area helped get her out of the street and a wonderful man named Chris came back and gave her a ride to the hospital.

I need to take a moment here to thank Chris. Chris picked up Emily, made her bike fit in the back of his rental car, drove her to the hospital, kept her company while she waited to see a doctor and then waited on his own until I could make it there to get her bike from him (I showed up about 3 hours after the crash). Chris was in town on business and did everything that I couldn't do for her. Thank you Chris, so very, very much. I asked Chris if there was anything I could do for him and he only asked that I do the same for someone else in the future. I replied, "of course."

Here is where you come in. I like to think that I would do the same for someone that needed my help regardless of whether he had helped her or not. So, I'd like to ask all of you to try to pay it forward as well. Hopefully we can expand this chain of good deeds much faster this way. So please, please give help to someone you see who needs it.

Emily got real bad road burn on her right leg and a deep cut on her right elbow to go along with a slew of other smaller cuts and scrapes and a bruise on the back of her left knee. She got scrubbed up and a stitch in her elbow, a scrip for antibiotics and painkillers and then we got to go home. She stayed home on Thursday and Friday (mostly because she is required to wear pants and closed-toed shoes in the lab and she didn't think she could get pants on).

Tonight she finally got to wash off the sweat and sunscreen from the tragic ride (she was told not to shower for two days) but this meant removing the gauze that covered the wounds. Not Fun. But we got through it and now she smells much nicer (and the wounds look like they will heal up without too much scarring).

So what good came out of this? Well, hopefully everyone who reads this will pay Chris' good deed forward. Also, I finally get to take her bike in to get it overhauled (it is the bike she got in middle school and I think it was part of the reason she fell). Also, I got to play hero husband (once I got there) and help her do things so she is crazy in love with me right now. (Well, crazier in love me, she loves me pretty crazy usually.)

Now before anybody can ask, she has health insurance and the bill shouldn't be too much trouble for us to cover. If you'd like to help, do this instead: Buy some raffle tickets for Fatty's birthday raffle. (Read his post about it here.) The proceeds go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation to fight cancer. They are giving away some great stuff (including a beautiful Ibis road bike). The only catch is that the drawing is tomorrow and you need to get a handful of $5 tickets by tomorrow.

If that isn't good enough for you, then buy yourself something nice from REI through the link at the bottom of this post and we'll take a small commission on that.

-Matt





Direct link to REI Cycling store