I was Cokering off-road this morning. I had this idea to have a mellow ride, take the Hunter36 to the park, stay on the novice trails and just enjoy…NOT!
I can never just cruise, I always end up working it pretty hard. I was probably going about 8 or 9 mph on some rocky stuff, under the trees and bam! I’ve never gone down so quickly in my life. I mean, no warning whatsover.
I landed full weight on my right shoulder, them my helmeted head smacked the trail. I knew right away it was bad.
I got up and walked a bit, to gather my wits, picked up the cycle and started walking back towards the car. I knew my day was done. I guess I was a little less than a mile from the car. By the time I got there I was in a fair amount of pain. I flagged down a biker and he was very helpful, he helped me load up. I finally felt my collarbone and I could feel it sticking up below the skin, a clean break.
I got behind the wheel and began driving towards the exit and started to feel a bit lightheaded. I decided that it was a far better idea to stop at the Park office. I had them call the paramedics. They got me up in the ambulance and took me to the nearest emergency room.
There they confirmed my self-diagnosis. They hit me with an anti-inflammatory shot in the butt, gave me a Percocet, fitted me with a sling and took a CT Scan of my brain to be safe because I was feeling pretty lightheaded. That came out negative.
I can’t stress enough how glad I was to have had my helmet on. As I stated earlier, I had planned on a mellow ride, I did not wear my usual shin/knee, elbow and wrist gaurds. I most definately would’ve been way more messed up than this, my head really hit hard.
So I’ve got a bunch of pills I’ve got to take, a long recovery and no riding for a while
Sorry to hear that. Collar bone is one of the most vulnerable places on the body. One wack and your down for the count.
I hope you heal quickly, because being injured with the weather like this would really suck.
Must be some good drugs. They scanned your brain and it came up negative? They couldn’t find it? Did you happen to tell anyone at the hospital how it happened? They may not have even read the scan, they just assumed anyone who would take a 36" unicycle offroad with very little protective gear… well Not that it would have made any difference in this case.
As for the helmet, a good thing indeed. I always wear a helmet, and it saved me a concussion, bruise, and large, deep gash at the first day of the cal muni weekend. I was hopping, and I fell and hit the low back of my head on a rock outcropping. I got lucky.
Chewing, ugh… You’ve got enough to deal with. This nurse says powder 'em up and mix with applesauce or yogurt.
Frank, super sorry to hear about your crash, but glad you were wearing your helmet. I hope the collarbone heals fast and you’re back in the saddle soon.
i hate that,i nice easy ride that turns into a disaster.it could happen on any uni but i always felt Cokers were extremly unsafe at any speed.its a long way down.part of the reason i sold my Coker was because of that unsafe hight.
i mostly thought injury would not be because of an endo but from somthing like Christofer Reeves…i was riding a Coker 2 years ago down town talking to a friend on his byke when i relized that my head just went under a “dont walk” sign,clearing it by millimeters! it would have knocked me out like a light if i had not been slightly leaning over while talking.
hope you recover soon,ive broke my collar bone before.i wasnt able to raize my arm for a month.you seem to be typing fine,thats a plus.
Sorry to hear the news Frank. You’ll be better in a week so we can go riding, right? Have a speedy recovery nontheless. If you’re still headed down this way to Sarasota we need to hook up so I can give the Schwinn back to you. Maybe you can check out my new two wheels? Regardless we’ll have a few beers on John’s dime. Drop me a PM.
I hope your collar bone heals quickly and you’ll be in the saddle
soon!
About the helmet: good that you had it on, and thank you for
mentioning it and reinforcing many people’s belief in wearing helmets.
More proof that one never knows when disaster strikes!
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“Heck, even my toes were aching from trying to grip the soles of my shoes! - Tommy Thompson”
Sorry to hear about your injury, Frank. You really are “off-road” for a while. I guess taking up juggling to kill the time won’t work in this case!
I’m glad you stopped driving. I drove myself to the hospital once with a kidney stone. I was lucky that it was after midnight and no one was on the road!
Thanks to everyone for the good wishes. Once I find a comfortable position, things aren’t too bad. I’m taking the anti-inflam’s and the muscle relaxers but I’m laying off the Percocets. I’m not much for narcotics.
I’m right handed so it’s a drag 'cause I can’t do too much.
Everyone assumed I’d crashed on a mountainbike. I told them it was actually a unicycle. They usually just repeated “a unicycle?” After a while I didn’t bother explaining.
It’s too bad, I had cleared my calendar and was planning to get over to Sarasota to hook up with the local boy’s and to meet zod.
Zod, I hope you can meet up for a ride anyway, you’ll have a good time. Adam and John are great guys.
No, Frank, no! I hate to hear that. You have six weeks of inconvenience to look forward to, but after that you will be fine. You will be able to ride again about the same time as me.
I broke my collarbone when I went over the bars of my mountainbike a few years ago. I walked to a neighborhood and laid down in the street when I felt myself blacking out. Nobody came along so I eventually started walking until I found someone in their yard. Unfortunately they didn’t speak English, but I used their phone and my wife came and picked me up. That is one painful injury. I am glad you are staying off the pain killers. The first week or so I wore a sling rather than the harness because the harness really hurt. Then the pain started becoming unbearable so I tried the harness again and it felt much much better. Thought I would mention that in case you have trouble getting comfortable. I had no trouble sleeping. I slept with my arm and body propped up with pillows.
What a shame to have all those custom munis collecting dust. Good luck and fast healing to you.
Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery Frank. I see people riding Cokers (sometimes even offroad) without a helmet often - not a good idea. Glad your most important asset is unharmed.
Sorry to hear about the collarbone. It should heal quickly, but don’t push it - I broke mine twice in three months because I rushed back into martial arts after the first break. (Sadly, while the girl involved was not properly impressed either time, she did break her collarbone a little later trying to impress someone else in the class.)
Sorry you had to do it, but thanks to both Frank and Bevan for reminding most of us why we wear our helmets every time we ride the rough stuff. It can happen.
They scanned your brain and it came up negative? They couldn’t find it? Did you happen to tell anyone at the hospital how it happened? They may not have even read the scan, they just assumed anyone who would take a 36" unicycle offroad with very little protective gear… well 