Falling off My Bike

Last week, I finally had the courage to get back on my bike after my injury. It felt pretty weird…strange, with some fear along with a tiny bit of pain when I hit a pothole and it jarred my healing pubic bone – yeah, my crotch.

On December 26^th at about 8 a.m., I started pedaling my bike in the forty degree weather to go swim at the gym, my typical routine that I practiced several times a week. The next thing I remembered was walking into my kitchen and telling my husband that I fell off my bike and my hip hurt. My guess is that I fell at the park at the end of my street where the sidewalk zigzags around the building.

I didn’t remember falling, getting up, walking home, or anything before and for at least ten minutes after the fall. I didn’t remember our initial conversation when I walked into the house or that it was the day after Christmas. Mitch shined a flashlight into my eyes to see if the pupils contracted normally to check for a concussion even though I had been wearing a helmet.

My brain felt a bit foggy, but other than my sore hip, I felt fine. He asked me about Christmas presents that I received and had given. These memories felt distant and unclear. Then he mentioned Buffy, my almost fifteen year-old Cocker Spaniel and what I had given her.

Photos of Buffy surrounded by her Christmas loot of cookies and Dots instantly cleared my brain.

Dogs have always grounded me.

At the emergency room they suspected I might have passed out before I fell—syncope—which had never happened to me before, but would explain some of the memory loss.

After two nights at the hospital, CT scans of my pelvis and head, an MRI of my pelvis (eventually of my head too), an EKG, an echocardiogram, an EEG (plus a 24-hour ambulatory EEG), and a two week heart monitor – all we knew was that I had four hairline fractures in my pelvis.

I couldn’t take a single step on my right leg without a walker or a cane.

Additional testing over the next few weeks led to more testing. One of the findings was thickened endometrial tissue in my uterus that needed a biopsy and ultimately a D and C.

All from a simple fall off my bike!

The only benefit of being disabled was to get a handicapped hang tag for my car. Chicago area winters are challenging for the handicapped with trying to use a walker in the snow, ice, and over large chunks of road salt. My walker gliders quickly wore out and a four-wheeled walker allowed more mobility over the rough ground.

Being handicapped was exhausting. You don’t realize how much you move around in the house, how often you go up or down stairs, how hard it is to carry a cup of tea upstairs to the office, and how tiring walking around the front of a classroom is while teaching.

Buffy was my biggest challenge. She can’t walk up or down stairs to go outside or to our bedroom. Although Mitch would help, he wasn’t always on the same schedule as me with my early morning classes to teach. Poor Buffy, being blind, she just couldn’t understand why I couldn’t carry her and walk her to the potty area at the front of the house. I tried using a sling to get her the five steps down the back deck. She didn’t like that. Then I found I could go part way down the stairs, lift her, place her sideways on a step, then go down the next two steps.

We made a comic pair, if any of my neighbor were watching, me with a walker trying to lead a blind, limping dog to the front lawn. Carrying the poop bucket and not making a mess made it even more fun.

Now, 7 ½ weeks later, the worst is behind me. I can now walk over a half mile without using a cane, although very slowly. Buffy is happier. I even carried her up and down the stairs yesterday!

Doing yoga and using the therapy pool at the gym helped a lot in my recovery. I even found that chair yoga can be challenging at times.

I’m hoping the warmer weather predicted for this week will allow me to start riding my bike more often – although a bit more cautiously.