Okay not really. I have gotten "back in the saddle" as they say. But it has taken a month!
It all started out on a beautiful Saturday morning (Labor day weekend to be precise) and Jenica was excited for a three day weekend to spend enjoying with her husband. They woke up and were ready for their bike ride up to Hobble Creek canyon. Tyler's dad brought their bikes from his house in his truck. They keep their bikes there so they can easily get to Provo canyon. They took off with high hopes for a lovely bike ride that they had never done before.After the first half mile, Tyler's dad got a flat tire so we stopped to fix it. A few miles later when we got to Springville, my bike's chain (which was actually Katelin's that I had to ride because my bike's back wheel was mysteriously bent) came off and the peddle nailed me in the shin. Little did I know, that would be the least of my worries come an hour later. After riding on the bumpy streets we finally got to Hobble Creek canyon and rode up past the golf course as far as we could go. In the meantime, Tyler's dad got another flat tire. We waited for him to fix it....then it popped...again. So, after fixing it for the third time (luckily he had Tyler's and Drew's, T's brother, spares) we headed back down. Tyler and Drew took off with me after them. Tyler's dad passed me and Rachel (sister-in-law) and and Carol (mother-in-law) were a bit behind me.
After I got out of Springville, I decided to turn into a neighborhood to take the back route home so I wouldn't have to be on the busy street. As I turned onto a street, my bike suddenly slipped on some gravel and I went sliding onto the road. I was shaken up and picked myself up and fell onto the grass. I managed to get my my phone out of my arm band and called Tyler to come pick me up. In the meantime, two cars stopped to help me. One with a grandpa and his grandson, and one with a doctor and her husband. They helped clean me up until Tyler could come get me. He put my bike in the truck and then we went back to Rachel and Drew's house where they made me a protein shake. After I got over being extremely nauseous from the shock, Tyler drove me to InstaCare. We waited in the lounge for a while with blood dripping down my arm, then I finally got in and the nurse numbed up my wounds and scrubbed them out. She wrapped them with bandages, but one thing that worried me is that she said to the doctor that "there was no way she could get all of the gravel out of my arm." Huh? Scrub it out! lol so we dropped by at Cafe Rio on the way home and then I took a nap. After I woke up, Ty helped me shower and mom brought over a movie and helped me wrap myself up again. She also brought me some Lortab which I was SO grateful for the next day because my arm hurt a lot.
On Sunday, I stayed home from church and I was feeling really sore and I couldn't use my right arm. Rachel and Drew were nice enough to make breakfast for us. Unfortunately, I didn't take pain meds soon enough and the pain was out of control in my arm, so finally after an hour after taking another Lortab the pain subsided. I was able to take a nap. Later on, we went to Tyler's parents house for dinner, then stopped by at my Grandma's on the way home. The next day I woke up and I was feeling a little better, so Tyler and I went to Ruby River to eat with my mom and sisters and then I went up to Park City with Jocelyn and my mom because Tyler had to stay home to sell his car. We had a good time :)
A couple days later, my arm really started to hurt and got looking really nasty. I made an appt. with Dr. Jackson to x-ray my arm and found out that there weren't any fractures, but he could gravel embedded into my arm. He is an orthopedic surgeon so he doesn't normally work with open wounds in his office so he didn't have any anesthetic...so he laid me down on a table and started scrubbing away! Whew it hurt! But even after an hour it started feeling better because all of the infection was out.
I started taking antibiotics and after one month and two days, I'm feeling much better. I even went on four bike rides last week, although I have been VERY cautious, especially when going around turns. This whole experience has made me so grateful for my healthy body. It was so hard getting ready in the morning or at night when I couldn't bend my right arm and I could only use my left hand fingertips. I now have a LOT more sympathy for people who are injured too. I'm going to be so careful on my bike whenever I ride because I know how easy it can be to fall!
