it's all fun and games until someone steps on glass, or spears their quad with their brake lever. Unfortunately i did both this past holiday weekend. UGH!
i am so late posting these I'm just going to do a super quick recap:
Saturday - Adele, William, Thor, Sookie, Laea and I went to the Columbia for a relaxing boat ride and sunset picnic. Instead I promptly stepped on a piece of glass in the water and gave myself a 3" long - 3/4" deep slice in my left heel pad. ouch. I was irked and it was so lovely out I didn't want to leave right away - so William helped me fashion a bandage out of an old towel and dog leash. We stayed long enough to eat our snacks and let Sookie and Laea get some good swimming in - then we hopped back in the boat and zipped into Gresham to hit the only urgent care center in Portland open past 5pm on Saturdays. Sheesh - don't they know people hurt themselves at night?
Sunday! Well - Sunday I tentatively weighted my foot, decided it wasn't feeling too tender, and told Adele I'd join her for a trip to Skibowl to preview the course for this coming weekend's Oregon Enduro race. I tested my foot pedaling the bike - no problem! Since I wasn't pedaling with my heel it was fine. Adele and I got one run in down the course and hit the lift for round two. About midway down I caught my front wheel in some loose dirt and went over the handlebars. It was a pretty benign tumble - except that I managed to catch my thigh just perfectly on my brake lever and give myself a pretty wicked puncture wound! It was pretty scary for both Adele and I - I won't go into too much gory detail (and no worries - there are no wound pictures below) but let's just say there was a lot of blood.
Adele was a real champ and raced down the hill to get help - while i stayed above and made a bandage/tournequet out of my jersey and my long sleeve pads that I was wearing. Once I had that in place I called 911 which sent the Highland paramedics on their way to check me out at the base - and I was glad I did! The first responder from Skibowl that showed up on the mountain was a Grade A, first-class, A-hole! He was terrible - dropping f-bombs everywhere and screaming at both me and the people who had stopped to help me for riding a closed trail (there was no closed trail sign up top). He was horrendous. The Highland Fire guys were awesome though - super friendly and calm. They made such a difference in how I was feeling about the whole situation once I got to the bottom that I actually sent them a thank-you letter.
Anyhow - once they confirmed that my wound was stabilized they gave me the option to drive myself to the ER instead of taking the ambulance. Since I was there with Adele and she could drive I went with this option - and Adele and I loaded up and headed to the ER at Legacy Emanuel in Portland. I had a GREAT experience there too - awesome staff! I was soon joined by Thor, and then Mom & William showed up too! We had all been planning on going to a cello concert at Timbeline that evening - I was sorry to throw a wrench in the group plans.
I couldn't watch any of the ER work - I held a magazine in front of my face the entire time - but Adele and Thor said it was very interesting. For anyone who wants to see them Adele has many gruesome pictures on her phone - if you text her she will send them to you.
Goodnight everyone!
All smiles pre-injury.
The offending section of trail at Skibowl that I went down on.
