Well That is Going to Leave a Mark

  As some of you may have noticed I have been missing from the Forum for a few weeks. Yeah, yeah no big loss. LOL.
The reason being I was in the hospital for a week. Mountain bike accident. I fractured 2 vertebrae in my upper back T3 and T4 
to be exact . It required the doctors to fuse T's 1-6 together to stabilize things. I also fractured my left wrist. I currently have
reduced strength in my right hand's 2 middle fingers but it is slowly getting better. I have a large section of my back that
currently has no feeling ( the operation site ). In short my left wrist is in a cast and I have to wear a big back / neck brace.
( I will post some pics of them later )

 So what happened
Firstly I was wearing protective gear. Helmet, Pads, ECT. ( good thing )
I was riding on some trails at one of my favorite mountain bike parks . The trail that got me was one I have ridden many times
before. Ironically it wasn't even close to the most challenging trails I have ridden. The spot that got me was at the top of a hill
you ride down and it transitions into a bridge. However coming off the hill at speed I just couldn't make the transition that day. Instead
I went into the ditch underneath the bridge.
Of course at the time I thought I had only severely bruised my back and sprained my wrist ( Adrenalin what can I say ). I could feel my
legs and toes and arms and fingers. I was mobile, so I drug my bike out of the ditch and walked off the trail back to the car. Not
the best idea in hindsight but I did what I had to do. My sister was at the park resting at a pavilion. She doesn't like running the harder trails.
after getting ahold of her on my cell she got some help loading the bikes up. I originally thought I needed to get checked out at an urgent care
( little did I know my sister was actually taking me straight to a hospital ) en route the pain really set in so I asked her to take me to the ER instead to which she replied she had seen my helmet was cracked and the hospital was the destination all along. After arriving in the ER and waiting a few hours in extreme pain having X-ray's CT scans and an MRI they finally had a good idea of the extent of the damage.  They placed me on a mobile bed , gave me morphine,and I was finally able to have some water. After being transferred multiple times to different rooms.
They had one ready for me. They put my left hand / arm in a cast and did surgery on my upper back. after a bit of time in recovery ( days ) and I was cleared to go home.

Take Aways
Stuff happens. I am grateful I am not paralyzed. Will I ride again, Absolutely. Though I may never ride the harder trails again
I am 40 and the risk is becoming too great. This experience will cost me a lot. Yes I do have insurance but their will still be bills
I will have lost time at work and will loose income
My boss is fantastic but this could have just as easily cost me my job . ( kind of hard to work if your paralyzed ).

Things to remember
Life can change in an instant count your blessings when you can and no matter how bad things seem they
can always be far, far, worse.
 

Thank you tommylight.

Well tommylight I currently am having to take some meds to keep my heart rate in control ( it would shoot up to 130 BPM if I moved around ) and a muscle relaxer to prevent any spasms as far as other pain control I got off the usual narcotics asap I don't like being on them either.
If I have problems I will take Tylenol.
 

Thanks JT . I wonder if some times these things happen because of complacency. ( oh I have run this trail dozens of times I know what I'm doing )