Since the start of June, I had been embracing the West Coast active lifestyle and biking to and from work. About 30 mins each way. Great way to get a workout built into my day (in addition to 2-3 trips to the gym/week for some weight training).
Anyways, while biking home on the evening of Tuesday June 22, something went wrong with my bike & my front tire stopped spinning (could have been brakes or tire malfunction, could have had to do with the basket on my handlebars...still a mystery). When my bike stopped so suddenly, I went flying over my handlebars and hit every part of my body on the way down
(OUCHY!!!!!). Hit my head (thank goodness I'm so adamant about wearing a helmet), my back, hurt my neck, banged up my legs and arms. Luckily I walked away with a broken arm as my most serious injury.
(OUCHY!!!!!). Hit my head (thank goodness I'm so adamant about wearing a helmet), my back, hurt my neck, banged up my legs and arms. Luckily I walked away with a broken arm as my most serious injury.
Since I was on a bike route when I fell, lots of cyclists immediately stopped and moved my bike off of me and called 911. The fire fighters responded first and just did a basic check for life threatening injuries (it was interesting knowing what was happening all along thanks to my recent 100 hr wilderness first aid course). Then the paramedics got there and took over. They quickly realized my right arm was causing me the most pain and my spotty vision from hitting my head was subsiding. They splinted my arm w/ a Sam splint and tensor bandage and got me to stand up and sit myself on the stretcher. There was a bit of frustration when one paramedic said I didn't have to have laughing gas if I didn't want to b/c I've had bad experiences with it before... and the other kept telling me to have it. Then when standing me up, that second paramedic was too quick to move my legs and jerked my broken arm as well (OUCHY again!)...I know they were just trying to help, but me and the one paramedic didn't get along so well.
They took me to UBC hospital b/c it's not as busy as VGH. I got checked in and had a bit of waiting to do between the doctor coming to see me, nurses making me more comfortable, getting x-rays etc. No luck getting a hold of Rob from the portable phone the hospital let me use (even though he had the cell phone - it was off b/c the batteries were low). I would have liked to have him with me, but I was actually in and out pretty quick in about 2 hours. They were really nice and sent me home in a cab w/ a taxi chit, wrapped up in a blanket.
Rob had a bit of a shock when he got home that night about 30 mins after I did. After I told him the whole story, he walked up to 4th Avenue to fill my prescription for pain killers and I think that gave him a chance to sort of digest the whole thing.
So since then, everything's been a little different trying to function with a broken right (dominant) humerus/upper arm. Since it's broken just below my shoulder they can't even put it in a cast, so I'm just in a minimal sling and have to be pretty careful not to move it too much. I'll put in 1 photo we took to track the swelling against my healthy arm, but I'll spare you from having to look at lots of photos... You'll see that lovely sling beige in lots of upcoming photos tho!
Now I'm well on the road to recovery...it's been over 3 weeks, with another 3-4 weeks to go until the bone is supposed to have healed. It's well aligned based on more recent x-rays, so I'm just waiting for my body to do it's thing and fix itself. Rob's been great about helping me out around the house and I'm back to work, figuring out how to do everything just a little differently.
Let me know if you have any tips and tricks for life with a broken arm!!
-Sara
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