I was riding my bicycle on Sunday, starting a thirty miler, and was hit from behind by a hit-and-run driver. I was doing about 12 mph; the H & R guy was doing 65-70 according to a woman he passed. According to her, I was knocked about 12 feet into the air and about 20 feet down the road where I hit flat on my back then rolled. The guy stopped for a second then took off. The woman he passed called 911 and stayed with me. I spent all day Sunday in the University of Arizona Medical Center Trauma unit in Tucson; I am home now. I am lucky I have only one broken bone but I also do have a lot of soft-tissue injury; my entire left leg is black and going green. There isn't a portion of my body below the ears that doesn't hurt. I have sixty stitches and they are still picking gravel out of me. I am eating vicodin as if it were salted peanuts.

Incidentally, there is a 4' to 5' wide bicycle lane along that stretch of the road and I was on the right side of that lane according to my guardian angel.

They caught the guy who hit me when he was trying to sneak past the accident site to get home; he doesn't live too far from me. The woman who was my guardian angel recognized the car as he tried to slink past and the Pima County Sheriff ran him down. He was under the influence of something, I was told. He has been charged with ADW as well as leaving the scene of an accident. My beloved road bike is now elegant junk.

I am mainly writing this note as a request for encouragement. I'm not depressed but am feeling a bit sorry for myself just now. I am in my mid-70's and I worry that I will not recover from this. I suspect that I will be nearly immobile for a month and will loose more of my physical conditioning than I will ever be able to recover. I would just love to hear some cherry stories of old guys who have recovered from stuff like this and went on to greater things. Anything you can come up with will be welcome.

This summer I was not going to be able to get out at all anyway. My wife is on the UMC transplant list for a double lung transplant so we are on a very short leash; I am her full time care giver. But so far, I have been able to get out enough for basic conditioning. Now, I can't do that nor can I care for her; she is helping with my care as much as possible. My son and his wife have been coming over every day to help out and I should be ambulatory in a week or so.

So, please, some encouraging words from my friends here. Thanks.


Edited by Pika (06/09/10 01:14 PM)
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May I walk in beauty.