Chelsea Lyn: a fall off the bike, an afternoon at the emergency room

sorry i missed you all yesterday

i had a pretty bad biking accident on the way to work that left me with one working arm, a bruised jaw-bone, a few butterfly stitches to the chin and some cuts and scrapes...

not a fun way to start my tuesday!

so heres the story as i'm sure you are thinking, "what happened!?!?"

(or maybe you're not thinking that, but i'll tell you anyway).

i was biking to work and carrying a my lunch bag over my shoulder and had it resting on my back.

the bag moved a bit causing me to have more weight on one side of the bike. i started to loose control and swerve a bit and thats when my bag flew forward right in between my bike frame and front tire.

the bike stopped, i flipped over the front, somehow unclipped my shoes from my bike, and landed on the side of my head and hand.

this was probably one of the scariest moments of my life.

i laid in the street, not being able to really lift my head or see. i couldn't really open my mouth wide enough to scream as my jaw was in excruciating pain. i could feel blood dripping down my neck and my hand was throbbing. it's crazy what goes through your head in moments like these; shear panic. i thought oh no i broke my face and my hand, and my head was pounding from the impact. i laid there yelling as loud as i could hoping someone saw what happened. luckily, within minutes, a man came into view with a cell phone asking if i was okay. a few more people came seconds later. i tried my best to explain that i was okay and told him to call taylor. moments later the paramedics came. they made sure i didn't have any neck or back injury and walked me over to the ambulance to clean me up and put a cardboard splint on my hand and arm. the pain was horrible and all i wanted was to see taylor and know that i was going to be okay, but everyone around me was so nice and helpful (there really are good people in l.a.). as soon as taylor came he packed up my things and took me to the E.R. i felt better knowing i was with him. he even made me laugh a little on the way there. he said, "how did this monkey get into so much trouble?"

so, the doctor saw me, stitched up my chin and took x-rays of my hand, wrist and jaw. when i returned to my exam room he showed me the x-rays and told me i had broken my hand in three places. (crap!) he also said some people with this kind of break need surgery, but that my orthopedic doctor will better know if that's the case for me.

it is my right hand, which is my writing hand. my first thoughts were, oh no how am i going to take pictures and blog (my love and passion), or make french toast on fridays....or work! meanwhile taylor was saying "whoa, cooool" and trying to get the doc to print the pictures out as a souvenir.

so for the next six weeks (practically all of summer!) i will have a cast. but i must say i'm pretty lucky i was wearing a helmet. i dont know that i'd be here right now typing (...slowly typing) without it. so a broken hand, a locked jaw, a stitched chin and a few cuts and bruises...

eh, that's nothin'!

lets just hope i don't need surgery. i should know on friday.

and i was still (with a lot of effort and help from tay) able to make waffles with our new waffle iron!