Table of Contents: The Big Bike Accident - September 1, 2004

I slept until noon. I had my own normal sleep-inducing medications in my system, plus Vicodin, which on its own is sleep-inducing. When I got out of bed, I knew that it was time to confront my face. I looked in the mirror, trying not to expect anything in particular, and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't look worse. That is not to say that it looked good, but it could have looked a lot worse.

I'd been instructed at the E.R. to thoroughly scrub my face and other lacerations to avoid "tattooing", which is what can happen if the dirt and debris from the road aren't scrubbed out of the lacerations. I carefully scrubbed my face, which stung. I did not want to have any tattoos that I had not gone into a tattoo parlor and ordered myself. I showered and scrubbed the road rashes on my throat, chest, and shoulder as well as I could. This also stung, but was obviously necessary.

I must have looked pretty closely at my lower lip, but I don't remember what it looked like at that time (I'm writing this five days later). My lip looked very much like what the plastic surgeon had described. Part of it looked normal, and the other part looked too thin. These parts were divided by stitches.

Ian stayed home in the morning, but then went into work in the late afternoon. I sent out email to select groups of people about my accident. I alerted my project manager, my boss, and my friends Martha and John. I told them about the role my helmet had played in saving my life. I also wrote that I hoped to be back to work, at home, in a day or so. How naive I was!

I also e-mailed a select subset of the people in my friday "church" (really, happy hour) group about the accident, and inviting them to visit me at the normal church time at our house. I did not mention the severity of the accident - I just did not want to turn this into a big drama. I was not looking for pity.

I e-mailed my Mom, Dad, and brother, too. Not long after that, Mom called, having just read the e-mail. I assured her that I was OK, but that it would be a long road to cosmetic normalcy.

Even as I was e-mailing the later recipients of my accident-related email, I began receiving replies from the earliest recipients. Everyone was concerned and very supportive. It felt nice to have so much support, and made me feel connected to my people.

I was pretty out of it, being on Vicodin. Ian had rented me a stack of videos, and I tried to watch one, but was able to watch only about 45 minutes before I needed to rest and try to nap.

I don't remember much about the rest of the day. I do know that I ate a hodge podge of soft foods (I wasn't supposed to eat anything solid until I'd seen my dentist). I also remember that Ian called my dentist for me in the early afternoon. The dentist said there was nothing he could do for me until the teeth had healed some more.

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Table of Contents: The Big Bike Accident - September 1, 2004