The Accident

On August 31, 2008 I embarked on an epic bike ride with 4 of my favorite cycling buddies. How was I to know this ride may have changed my life forever. It was a beautiful summer day and we were in for a big ride on some of the best forest service roads in Humboldt county. I was already in Willow Creek, so I met the other guys at a coffee shop early and we were off. The ride went pretty much as usual, lots of climbing, lots of heckling, and tons of fun. Until about hour number 4, all the climbing was done and it was time to descend back to the creek and some well deserved frosty beverages. The descent was a tricky one, if you are a local you may know it well, Titlow Hill rd. About 3/4 of the way back to highway 299 I was coming around an S turn when my front tire popped. Normally a cyclist will carefully slow down and come to a stop, well this time was not normal. I was going approximately 30mph, which is nothing out of the normal for a descent, actually I was probably even holding back just a bit. I hit the rear brakes and was coming on a left hand turn when I unclipped my left foot, locked the rear brake and slid straight off the side of the road. That side of the road consisted of a small drainage ditch and a large bank of shale rock. Well my front wheel hit the ditch, pointed me in a downward position, and BAM!, I was on my head. The pain was intense in my neck and I wasn't sure if I could move or not. I wiggled around in a panic and immediately wanted to get up, only my right arm was completely limp. This is when my riding buddies were on me. They wanted me to stay on the ground, but I needed to get up for some reason. I sat up and tried to stand up, but I had to kind of swing my limp right arm under me to push up, when I pushed up it shot terrible pain into my clavicle area. This is when I realized I had broken my right clavicle.

I remember Geoff taking this picture of me after I got up. I don't know what made me smile, other than the fact I had no idea how serious this injury was. Believe me, that smile was brief. I quickly laid back down, we made a cell phone call, and in about 15 minutes my wife was there to take me to the hospital. I was very concerned about my flail arm, but I was just thinking(hoping) that this was normal for a broken clavicle.

We drive down Titlow hill and get to highway 299 when we realize, shit! we're about out of gas and the nearest gas in the direction of the hospital is about 20 miles away. Go for it, we decide. We make it and arrive at the hospital in Eureka about 1 1/2 hours post accident. Once in the ER, this is where it began to sink in the severity of my inury. My flail arm concerned and confused these doctors. They told me it should be fine in about a month, and the clavicle would heal on its own. You tell me, would you just let that heal?

Well, I went home, let all this soak in and started making calls to doctors to start to get some answers. About a week after the accident I was finally able to see an orthopedic surgeon. My arm was still pretty much flail and very numb. The one positive was that my hand had always worked. My thumb was numb, but I could use it. So about 3 weeks post accident I ended up having an EMG, which is a nerve conduction test to see what muscles are still firing in my arm. This test showed, in fact, that many muscles were receiving very little, if any, signal. My nuerologist did conclude that the nerves were still in continuity and in about a year I should have a full recovery. HOLY SHIT! A year?!?

Once my orthopod saw the results of the EMG we decided to do surgery on the clavicle. I would receive a stainless steel plate and 7 screws to hold it all together. The surgery was the day after my EMG. All went well and I was out of the hospital late the night of the surgery.

So that gives you an idea of the beginning of this journey, stay tuned for more about my mental struggles, physical struggles, and more. Thanks for reading.