Breaking bones

It’s been a while friends and I am not in a great place to write down all of what happened I thought I would share a bit of what’s been going on in my life this week. This Mother’s Day I called my mom from the ER because I had broken my wrist, definitely not my finest daughter moment. Pictures are at the end if you wanna skip the words and get right to the gore. I went to Shoshone Medical Center and they x-rayed me and put me in a splint; I had some of the best nurses and the best x-ray tech person (other than Casey) that I could ask for. Maria, Jesse and Katie are an amazing weekend crew and SMC is super lucky to have you. Not only that but I was splinted by Santa himself (thanks Dr B) who fed my ego by telling me how not-a-wuss I am. Monday I went to Dr Connor Quinn who got me into surgery the next day at Kootenai Outpatient where I was taken care of by Jessie and Crystal who were also super amazing! So here I am, a week after the accident, off my pain pills, able to use both hands and healing well as a newly bionic badass… with throttle control issues.

That’s how all of this happened, I panic throttled my dirt bike, looked exactly where I did not want to go and had some pretty predictable consequences. I’d like to say that I was in a really difficult section of terrain but it’s just not true, we were at the end of our ride and just about to turn around and head for home. there was barely any slope whatsoever and it was just the perfect storm of being tired and doing all the things I know not to do. In my head it went a little something like this:

Man I’m so tired I have to remember not to pull on the handle bars because that’s where the throttle is. Shit I’m doing that, well crap better pull the clutch then it won’t matter. Crap, clutch is left not right that’s the throttle again, stop it hands!!! Okay well at least we are on this flat wide trail, just stay from those grumpy-looking bumps and we will just ride this out… away from the bumps… STOP LOOKING AT THEM OR YOU’LL HEAD RIGHT FOR THEM!!! CMON!!! Welp, it’s all gone sideways or more accurately upside down, shall we brace for impact? Sure, and while we are at it let’s try to kick the bike away. Good luck… we are totally gonna need it.

So I ended up flat on my back, with Randi taking off my helmet and Casey killing the bike and making sure I wasn’t bleeding out of my earholes. Casey and Chris went to look for the fastest way back to the road, we were just in the hills behind my house, Randi stayed with me. I remember looking from her to my arm I had cradled against me and saying

“man I hope I’m not freaking out but I’m pretty sure I broke my wrist”

She looked right at me and said “looks fine to me, swollen for sure but you’re pretty shaken up right now so try not to panic”.

Calmed me right down. Chris and Randi rode home to get their truck while Casey and I walked out, my arm strapped to my body with Randi and I’s shirts. It was about a half mile down some hills to the road and Casey patiently led me as I huffed and puffed and tried not to pee my pants when my footing slipped.

We got home where Julie and Bob (Casey’s folks) and Larry and Jacoba (Casey’s uncle and aunt) were waiting for us. They propped me up on a chair and asked how I was. I said “I think I’m okay, Randi says it doesn’t look broken so that’s good.”

Randi starts laughing next to me and says, “I just said that so you wouldn’t panic, it looks super broken, I can’t believe you believed me!”

“I was definitely grasping for any kind of hope, thanks for giving me what I needed.” We had a good laugh before Casey bundled me off to the hospital.

There you go, all caught up on my week; all said and done I had three fractures on the bones on my right arm, one T shaped plate and 10 screws un-humpty-dumpty-ed my right wrist, my left wrist got a pretty good sprain and is bruised most of the way to the elbow but getting better every day. I’m heading back to work tomorrow but I’m back to typing like my dad (index fingers only) and sleeping most of the day so don’t expect any quick response if you leave a comment or text or email.