I picked this doosie up the other day. That's my left waist and hip; it is hard to tell from the picture. The cause was an untimely bike mechanical, only this time it was luck instead of skill that kept the emergency from being a calamity.
After pulling myself off the shoulder of the road, the first thing I did was inspect my helmet. As blogger/cyclist Sprinter Della Casa will tell you, you can have a head injury without realizing it. My helmet and head were undamaged, so fortunately I did not learn a lesson about the importance of helmet usage. Next, I assessed my bleeding situation, taking slow, deep breaths to lower my heart rate and relax. Bones seemed to be working okay . . . looks like fairly cosmetic damage--just road rash (if a fairly severe case of it) but nothing jagged or pokey or muscley hanging out. No increased pain on movement. Liquids were mostly oozing and not really gushing. So: head--check; bones--check; major veins and arteries--check.
Then came the eight-mile ride home (and a brief pit-stop at Rite-Aid) with my new friend, the gaping maw on my hip. The pain of a fresh, mostly cosmetic wound isn't too much more than the pain you can put in to your legs when turning the big gears for a long time, I think. The only difference is you can't turn it off.
Hydrogen Peroxide, Bactine, Neosporine, gauze. I should have taken pictures of the whole process, and done this post as How-To: Home Surgery for the Uninsured. It would have been fun.
Now I am going to have to decide how to handle my very naughty Tachikoma. It skipped as if it was missing a cog on the cassette, when I laid my weight in to the pedal--but it has all its cogs. It's hard to analyze something like that when it happens in a split second and is over before you're aware of it, but it was as if the pedals lost their tension on the chain. Maybe it was a mis-shift on the chainring--but it didn't drop down to the small ring.
I don't know.
I'm off of riding for a while. Ironically, Bike-To-Work Week will have been the first week that I didn't bike to work.
Friday, May 16
. . . Not Averted
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7 comments:
Sounds like a good reason to start looking at new bikes, just find a good platinum credit card.....glad you are ok and did not tangle with any traffic.
Yea. I went to Gus' and rode a Lemond Triomph-class a few weeks back; I've been semi-priapistic since.
The skipping you've described is a classic symptom of a worn out chain and cassette. Granted, there could be other causes, (derailleur adjustment, etc.) but I'd bet even money that you need to replace your chain and possibly your cassette.
Hope you heal up soon.
Thanks Bob--chain stretch was what I was thinking too. It seems to happen mostly when I apply burst power to the pedals. At this point my bike needs new shifters, too--but there are enough things wrong with it that the repairs would cost half as much as the bike did it in the first place.
For future reference, gauze is totally worthless for road rash. You will be very very happy if you invest in some Tegaderm (or, better, DuoDerm, if you can find it). That stuff is like a miracle -- reduces pain, healing time, and scarring. Worth every extra penny.
Also, Betadine is much better than peroxide, which apparently contributes to drying of the wound, which is exactly what you want to avoid.
Good luck. Heal up fast.
Hey, thanks for the advice! I'll check that out. As it turns out, Amazon has both Tegaderm and DuoDERM. Maybe I'll get some next time I do an Amazon book order.
Gross! Thanks for the comment on my road rash -- I have been using tegaderm, which, ironically has made my road rash look a lot worse than it does in the pictures. I think it's the trapped ooze trying to find a way out. But yours just looks plain nasty. I definitely had a gag moment pulling up your blog. Good luck!
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