Sometimes, no matter how careful you think you are being, shit happens!
It's Christmas Eve morning and Switch and I head out on our normal ride over the usual route. The temp was cold and the roads were wet but it wasn't raining at the time. We head up the hill to get some climbing in. As we turned off Altamont and start down Page Mill, Mark yelled at me "I'll see you at the bottom - Rhonda told me I can't hurt myself today since it is the day before Christmas". Within 3 seconds after that statement was made, I was on the pavement in a freak, slow motion crash!
As I headed around the first lefty, I noticed water and mud on the road. I slowed WAY down to avoid and accident but the minute I hit the mud, I felt my back tire coming around on my right. I tried to recover but it was too late. Next thing I know I'm on the pavement, sliding along in slow motion and looking around. When I came to a stop I stood up, brushed myself off and took inventory. The bike looks OK except to staighten the left break lever a little bit. However, my left thumb is killing me - something is messed up big time. But, like a good boy, I got back on my bike and we headed off. I actually di the last 20 miles that remained on our ride but the whole time I kept telling Switch was I just couldn't find a comfortable spot on my handlebars for my left hand. In fact, I left my left glove off so that my hand would freeze and I didn't have to deal with the pain and swelling. We stopped at Peets Coffee after the ride, had our morning inspiration and headed home.
At home I got cleaned up but decided there was no way I was going to spend Christmas Eve at the Stanford emergency room. I put my arm in a sling, stuffed a pair of rolled socks in my left hand and packed my hand in ice. Since there are no less that 4 doctors in our family, I got lots of attention on Christmas Day when we all got together. The verdict was unanimous that I need to get to Urgent Care as soon as possible! Of course, by this time my left hand looks like someone had inflated a purple latex glove. What a lovely color!
On Wednesday morning I head to PAMF Urgent Care. When it was my turn, the doctor listened to my story, looked at my hand and sent me to X-ray to 'find out what was broken and how bad'. After reading the X-rays the doctor sent me to an Orthopedic hand surgeon. I have this theory about the prognosis when you have to see anyone that has 'surgeon' in their job title. Sure enough the hand guy takes a look at the X-rays and the next thing I know I have an appointment scheduled for Friday for my hand surgery (my theory holds true again!) to get my thumb set, clamped and pinned. Yippee!
I wore my cast and pins until the 2nd week of February when they were finally removed. During this time, the best I could do was to sit in the garage on my stationary trainer with my arm in sling that was hanging from the rafters of the garage so that I didn't get the cast too sweaty :-) The good news is that I got my cast changed about every 2 weeks so it never got too bad inside. When it came time to remove the pins, the doctor walked into a small examining room where I was camped out. He pulled a package out of his docterly pocket, ripped it open and pulled out a pair of.... CRESCENT PLIERS? Come on now! You need to have something more sophisticated that that!!! He walks over to me, twirls the pins a bit with his fingers to make sure the are loose from the bone and then reaches down with the pliers, grabs the end of the first pin and starts to pull it out. Wait a second! Don't you have to put me to sleep or something before you do that???!!!! As he pulled the pin out I felt a very deep ache in my left hand as the fluids moved into the cavity that was vacated by the pin. It didn't hurt but the doctor warned me it would be uncomfortable - that's the best explanation of the feeling - uncomfortable! Then he pulled the 2nd pin out and I was done!!! He gave me the name of the physical therapist that he recommended since my hand was pretty much useless and had zero strength or mobility. The hard part was just beginning....
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