I smashed my elbow

i can't believe this completely rotten thing has really happened to me.


Last week I seriously smashed up my elbow while riding my 29er. I was
taken to the hospital where I underwent surgery, and was required to
stay for 4 nights. It was a multiple compound fracture and the surgeon
explained that I may need 2 or more additional operations and perhaps
years of physical therapy before before I am anywhere near “back
to normal.” this is especially disturbing to me because I am an
artist and for now I can not use my right hand very well, (I am slowly
pecking this out with my left hand) so I dread to imagine the future
consequences of all this. The surgeon told me that my elbow was like a
shattered glass. It felt like it. It still does....

I wish I wore elbow pads. the irony is that I was protected by knee
pads, wrist guards, and of course, a helmet. But not elbow pads. In all
my unicycling adventures, when taking a fall, I always went forward and
never had a problem because I was always well protected. But you know
what they say—it only takes one bad fall on that ONE unprotected
place.

And its not like I was doing anything remotely fancy—I was out on
long island visiting my brother, and I went for a ride. I followed a
road that took me down by the beach. It was a beautiful twilight, and
for a moment, I stopped and sat on a park bench that faced the water. I
noticed a sidewalk that ran parrellel to the beach and that went up into
a small forest, so I decided to ride it. I attempted to freemount, and
failed. I tried to freemount again, and I still went nowhere. On my
third try, the world slipped upside down and a second later I was
cradling my broken arm and bleeding all over. It was terrible. Luckily,
some nice people quickly drove me to my brother's house, who then took
me to the hospital.

I think its the freemounting that did me in. I was always lousy at
freemounting, I always considered it to be my achillies heel, the one
thing I did not like about the unicycle, but still, my success rate was
good enough to keep me going. Till now.

This event has made a mess of my life—luckily enough, I have
health insurance, but my family and I were scheduled to go live in Paris
for a year and I had to cancel the flights an cancel the sublease on our
apartment, and we may not go at all, or at least I may not go at
all—the complications of this have been unbelievable.

I still love the unicycle, and I am grateful to have experienced the
pleasures of riding the one wheel, and I am delighted to have met so
many interesting unicyclists along the way (both live and on this forum)
and just a week into my injury I really miss riding the old 29er like
you would'nt believe, but –seriously--i do think my unicycling
days are over.... for now.

Bummed out beyond belief,
Steve

PS--don't overlook those elbow pads!


--
dogbowl - Member, Sun28 Appreciation Society

So I ride a Sun 28er. You gotta problem with that?

All I want out of life is to be able to ride the unicycle while smoking
a cigar at the same time. Is that too much to ask for?
www.dogbowl.com / www.eyeballplanet.com

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