The REAL Incident.

(As opposed to “The Incident.”)

As the headline is basically the whole article, here’s the inside scoop….

It was me—the cyclist. I joined the Wheelers ride in the morning but split from the group with Jen after the Island View Road climb. It was mid-June, and it was only 15 degrees! We were both wearing arm warmers and a gilet.

Jen was in the mood to go hard, so we had fun trading pulls until we merged onto the Johnson Street Bridge. I stopped pedalling and looked over my left shoulder: the coast was clear. I merged into the painted bike lane on the bridge, and then, out of the corner of my left eye, I noticed a silver car.

I never saw the driver. I don’t even remember seeing Jen when I got up. The first thing I remember after getting hit was spotting my tooth in a pool of blood on the road. My entire front tooth had come out in one piece. I was already surrounded by people. I gave my tooth to one of them. I don’t know why I did this. I wasn’t unaware whether any of these folks were paramedics, but they all seemed to want to help me. A lady with dark, curly hair started signing to me. Someone handed me my phone, and the lady told me to contact someone who could come and help me.

Because I fell off my boke.

As soon as I was loaded into the ambulance, one of the paramedics called a video relay medical interpreter on someone’s phone. I could communicate with the medics this way. The front facing video was showing on the screen, so I could see how fucked up I looked. I was in a neck brace and had blood all over my nose and chin.

My helmet, sunglasses, and jersey were gone. I don’t remember removing them or anybody removing them for me.

“We are going to ask you some weird questions: What’s the name of the city we’re in, and what year is it?”

“Victoria. 2024.”

I was no longer disoriented. The medics hooked me up to an IV drip and put a suction tube in my mouth to vacuum up the blood. The IV drip was making me sleepy, and the medic assured me this was normal.

Jordi met me at the hospital. There, they put me in the CT scan machine which showed that I had fractured my maxilla. More specifically the area between my nose and upper lip. I guess that’s how my tooth slid out in one piece. The neck brace came off once it was confirmed there was no trauma to my head or back.

Jordi helped vacuum the blood out of my mouth at least once. How romantic.

I feel fortunate to have literally walked from this without even a concussion. I have full use of my arms and hands. What I can’t do is chew. I can only eat through a straw. On that note, please give me your best smoothie or pureed soup recipe.

I walked out of the hospital wearing my bibs, non-slip hospital socks, and an oversized hospital robe around 2:30pm. And that’s when I saw my front wheel in the back of Jordi’s car:

So far, the rest of my bike might be ok. I still need to take a closer look. If it’s just the front wheel, well, that’s a much easier fix than my face.

The nurses (and I) were surprised by my heart rate and blood pressure. For the first time in months, my blood pressure was not high. My heart rate at the hospital was ~90bpm, which was good given my condition.

Yeah, I’m impressed with myself, too. I handled this well. It will be a difficult week, but I’ve received so much love and support from my friends.