It’s been 9 years and a week since the accident. On a bike trip in the hill country of Chile on little Christmas eve, a rocky hill presented to be negotiated, little dogs accompanying the locals who came to see the crazy gringos. When one of those pups ran across my path near the bottom, I hit the brakes and hurdled over the handlebars into the ditch as the bike stayed behind. That would change my life for at least 6 months, and in some ways longer. Even when fully recovered, I could not mount a bike without fear and had to cast aside that once treasured pastime (1). Although my right arm was worthless for 6 months, I never missed a day of work and don’t think I killed anybody.
After I was home for a month or so, Donna, my chief’s secretary, asked if might write a recollection of the experience for RheUMination, our Division’s quarterly magazine. Even though I chose to respond in verse, she still published it (2). A certain reader out there has been chiding me about my poetry chops, so this is for her.
There were a couple last lines that didn’t make it in. I’ve lost the original. But I think it went like this, including the first 2 lines:
“So 3 months into this venture
The numb dumb hand
Still can’t do much
But others have. It’s grand!”
Not an experience I’d care to repeat, for sure. But nothing makes for a better doctor than becoming a patient, and boy was I. I lost track of how many, but my doc count was well beyond double digits. Kathy sometimes said I should have declared disability and taken the 6 months off. I would have gone nuts. Figuring out the daily challenges of clinical medicine is what used to drive me. Add the challenges of a chronic injury, and I had my plate full, in an interesting way. Thank God, it’s all in the past. But the experience shall forever be with me, and I’ll never look at a weiner dog the same again.
Felice Navidad!
References
- Ike B. Bye, bye, bikes? WordPress 3/16/20. https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/03/16/bye-bye-bikes/
- Ike B. Reflections on a cycling excursion in Chile. RheUMinations Spring 2015.
Bob Ike's blog 
I’ve been over my handle bars 4 times that I can recall. It’s a bad fish-out-of-water feeling. Once I did a head plant, trifurcated my helmet and had shooting paresthesias down arms. Another time I pulled my left hip out of place, which eventually led to xrays and a THR. A third was at Tahoe. Jammed my ribs with the handle bars so hard I thought my ribs were fractured, but xrays showed nothing. The fourth time was injury free.
Anyways….my sympathies. The center of gravity for us taller guys is ridiculously high.
D
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