Crash and Burn

“Anita?… Anita?”

I open my eyes and see a blurry dark-haired man looking down at me.

“There you are.” he said.

“What happened?”

“You were in a bike accident,” he said as he loaded me into the ambulance. “Do you know where you are?”

“Huh?” My brain raced trying to make sense of things. Everything was fuzzy in my head and I couldn’t remember the past five minutes or so.

“Hansville?”

The day started out with me saying goodbye to William, my husband, as I headed out the door after loading my bike onto my car. I was heading to Edmonds where I was to meet another cyclist at the ferry dock. We were to ride the Kitsap Fall Classic route that I found on RideWithGPS. It was through mainly country roads with little traffic.

At the ferry dock, I get a text from my friend. Her dog escaped as she was loading her bike and wouldn’t make it to the ferry in time.

Oh well…it would not be the first time I rode by myself.

On the ferry crossing, I talked to an older man who also had a Rad Power Bike (different model). He was riding to Poulsbo and back. I told him about some of my rides and that I only used my throttle on hills. I also told him I was extremely cautious about going down hills and rode my brake. It terrified me to go too fast down a hill…I kept having visions of me crashing and it made me shudder.

In Kingston we went our separate ways and I headed out of town, taking the road to Hansville. I had never been there, other than the very edges while visiting a friend who lived near the Indian casino.

When I arrived in Hansville, I saw it was quite small, but so lovely. A little general store was located next to the Norwegian Park and the beach. Besides groceries, they sold hot coffee, ice cream, and food to go. I put in an order for the mini French dip sliders and went outside to sit at the picnic table near the beach.

About 15 minutes later, they brought out my sandwich and chips. The French dip was so good! I was glad I only did a half-order since I had trouble finishing just one.

Another person asked me about my ebike and how I liked it. I love telling everyone about how it’s liberated me and makes me feel like a kid again.

I finished eating and decided to detour from my route a bit and visit the Point No Point Lighthouse since I had never been there.  It was a lovely as the rest of the town.

Back on my route, I continued where I was to turn onto the Hood Canal Road. Looking at my GPS I could see that up ahead I would have a hill with a sharp left turn at the bottom, so I was prepared and started to slow my speed. I had not seen much local traffic and had been riding on the road for the most part. As I started to go down the hill, a car approached from the rear, so I moved over as far as I could into the narrow shoulder. I was eyeing the car as it came along side me…it made me nervous to have a vehicle so close. He couldn’t get over since another vehicle picked that time to go up the hill (from around the turn). Because I was distracted by the cars, I saw the patch of gravel too late. As soon as I hit the gravel, I could feel my heavy bike start to slide out from under me. I remember putting my foot down and exclaiming, “Oh, shit!” That’s the last thing I remember until I see the blurry man.

Once my mind starts to catch up with the present, I asked the paramedic how I was.

“You have a large hematoma and gash in your forehead and a lot of road rash.”

I reach up to my face and my fingers come away sticky with blood.

“I feel like my face is broken,” I said.

“We have your glasses and phone, Anita. Is there anyone you want us to call?”

I gave him my pin and directed him to call William. I heard him tell William that I was ok and on the way to the hospital in Silverdale. He then handed the phone to me.

I was still a bit out of it but remember telling William I had a bike accident and not to worry.

At the hospital, the ER staff quickly removed my clothes and hooked me up to a monitor. I was grateful that they didn’t cut apart my expensive bike kit while being slightly embarrassed of my nakedness around so many strangers.

They asked my name and date of birth, and what happened, which I was now able to remember.

I remember looking at the clock when I was first wheeled into the ER (around noon). They called William to give him an update. I asked him to please come back at least for the night (he was already three hours away in Wenatchee starting his epic vacation).

My head was throbbing, and my face burned like fire as someone lifted me to stick a x-ray film under my back for a chest x-ray. The doctor had the nurse give me some morphine then told me I would be getting a head and neck CT before removing the neck brace or backboard.

Thankfully, I had no brain bleed, and the CT only showed a small fracture of my maxillary bone in my face (one that would heal on its own).

The next ordeal was to clean out all the debris from my wounds on my face. I knew it was going to hurt, so I requested lidocaine to numb me up. Even with the lidocaine, I could still feel some of the brush bristles (at least that’s what it felt like to me) in the more sensitive areas.

The ER got five other traumas in at the same time, so I was left alone with the call button for a bit. The room was freezing, and it wasn’t long before the chill made me need to pee.

I requested a bed pan but found that I wasn’t able to go laying down. I didn’t feel quite ready to get up yet, so I told the nurse to just put in a catheter. It’s quite undignified to have someone spread your labia and clean you with iodine before inserting a tube, which is uncomfortable! I filled the bag within seconds.

The nurse also gave me one warm blanket.

An hour later, I had to pee again. Damn room was so freakin’ cold!

This time they brought a bedside commode. As they raised the head of my bed, waves of dizziness hit me, and I thought I was going to black out. Eventually it subsided enough for me to maneuver, with help, onto the commode. I sat there peeing for what seemed like minutes as both my calves started to cramp up on me. Oh great…more pain! I told the nurse I was probably getting leg cramps from being so cold and not having enough water to drink that day. She brought me water but said they were out of blankets at the moment.

I was still cold and shivering, when another patient poked her head into my room and stared at me. She asked me what I did to my face. I told her I tried to eat asphalt. If my brain had been functioning better, I might have told her I opted for “macro” dermabrasion instead of microdermabrasion and it went overboard.

This kind lady noticed I was shivering, left and came back with two blankets warm from whatever device they use to keep them warm.

After she left, I clamped my hand over my mouth so she wouldn’t hear me sob. It was a combination of her kindness and coming down off the morphine to cause the sobs. Morphine always makes me cry uncontrollably when it wears off.

It was several more hours before the doctor came back to say I would need some stitches and to give me a tetanus shot. He said my ribs were bruised and I probably had a concussion. I would need to see a specialist about the fractured maxillary bone, but it should heal on its own. He would also prescribe antibiotics and pain meds to take home. Yay, I wouldn’t be staying the night!

It was around 4pm by the time a different doctor came in to do the sutures in my forehead. I needed more lidocaine since the previous numbness had worn off. I got seven total and they are dissolvable, so I wouldn’t need to worry about having them removed.

Since the morphine wore off and I was starting to hurt. I asked if I could get some pain meds and was given another injection of morphine.

I was getting hungry so the nurse brought me a box lunch that included a ham and cheese sandwich, cheddar fish and an apple. I bit into the sandwich and nearly passed out from the pain. Apparently I had really smacked my top teeth in the crash. I tried pulling off tiny bites but I couldn’t chew them. I tried a cheddar fish but even it required too much pressure on my teeth when I chewed. I gave up and the nurse tossed everything into the trash.

Around this time the nurse asked if there was anyone who could pick me up. William said he couldn’t get there until around 7:30pm, so I put a plea on Facebook for some help. One person from the bike community volunteered to come get me, but it was taking too long to communicate with her, thanks to no phone signal for calls in my ER room. I ended up sending a Marco Polo to Tora, who agreed to come get me.

Since she had to catch a ferry then drive another 30 minutes or so, it was still going to be around 7pm before she could get me.

The nurse put me in a wheelchair and rolled me to the nurse’s station to keep an eye on me since they needed the trauma room.

Fun fact…St. Michaels Hospital in Silverdale, WA, is the second largest trauma hospital in WA state (Harborview in Seattle is the largest) and the only hospital on the peninsula. Well, if I had to go by ambulance to an ER, at least it was a good one!

Tora showed up about 7:30pm and I was finally released to go home.

We still had to catch a ferry back and given that it was a Sunday, the ferry wait was long. We didn’t get to my house until almost 10:30pm. I was so exhausted!

William was waiting for me and helped me shower the grit out of my hair, put Neosporin on my abrasions, fed me applesauce and tucked me into bed where I had a good sleep with no more than some Tylenol.

I’ve learned a few things during this out misadventure:

1. Accidents will happen no matter how much you prepare for them or how safe you think you are being;
2. The paramedics and hospital staff really do an excellent job in making you feel calmer, providing care and reassurance;
3. People can be so wonderful! So many friends, including faceless friends from my online bike communities, have reached out to me and offered comfort and support. Even people I haven’t thought about in years have contacted me. Their kindness has brought tears to my eyes and I’m so grateful for each and every one of them!

It’s going to take a few weeks for me to fully recover. Two day later and my biggest complaint is the waves of dizziness from the concussion and the painful bruised ribs. My face stings a little, but nothing I can’t handle. I also have a large, puffy bruise on my arm where I got the tetanus shot (I’m surprised at how much it still hurts).

I plan to be back on my bike on July 24^th to ride in a bike event along the Columbia River out of Vancouver!

I weighed myself yesterday morning and found I was down another three pounds. William teased that it was the weight of all the skin I scraped off on the road. Funny man!

P.S. – Thanks to whomever stopped to assist me and called 911! Also, a big thank you to the North Kitsap Fire & Rescue, specifically Firefighter Michael Foreman and Lieutenant Jack Meikle for their great care of me!