The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWhen you wipe out on your bike at 12, you shake it off...
...however, when you wipe out on your bike at 47, not so easy (as I'm discovering). My front tire blew out and my leg is sooooo effed! Not broken, but scuffed bad enough that it's taken 2 towels (so far) to staunch the blood.
Despite this, I still feel like I'm 12!
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)the whole summer!! still have a small scar from that.
got some Neosporin, I hope
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)I might bite the bullet and just pour rubbing alcohol on it.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)remember Mom used to pour alcohol on my scrapes ... and then blow on it
RudynJack
(1,044 posts)to Mercurochrome? Or Iodine? They hurt, too, but they looked medicinal.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Now we have Betadine ... but some people are allergic
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)Back in the 70's, used to see bottles of it in the medicine cabinet (next to Anacin! )
alarimer
(16,245 posts)My grandmother swore by and put it on every little ouch. And it stung so much I still have nightmares.
Do they even still make it?
RILib
(862 posts)However, I would follow what my Mom always did and wash it out with soap, then put an antibiotic cream on it. Keep a close eye on it for infection.
UTUSN
(70,494 posts)Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)It's my left leg. My right leg was crushed 10 years ago when I wrecked my 928-S4. Soooooo not the same thing.
I guess the point of posting about my bike wreck was that I was PLEASED that, despite being close to 50, I can STILL take a tumble!
UTUSN
(70,494 posts)So have lost the joie de vivre of taking chances. Ain't that sad?!1
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)My tibia plateau was crushed when the engine was pushed back, kinking the floor pan up and smashing my leg into a cross-member under the dashboard. The "Jaws-Of-Life" freed me from the wreck. Recovery was 6 months. However, I can walk today thanks to a courageous Orthopaedic surgeon (his initial assessment was to lop my leg off, but, despite it being a Saturday, he rebuilt it!).
Kali
(54,990 posts)some painting of an old guy with no teeth (cowboy in my Dr.s Office) "If Ah'd a knowed I was gunna live this long, I woulda took better care of mahself."
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,282 posts)... that was pain, and the 50-year-old memory is still cringeworthy.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)... no resistance! That's happened to me before.
pink-o
(4,056 posts)I was trying to go around a muni bus and got caught in the streetcar tracks. Couldn't get out of the toe straps quick enough, and went over hard on my left side. Broke my leg right where it meets the pubic bone (so glad I'm a chick!) Just a hairline fracture, but at 47 it took 2 months to heal. At 12 I wudda been riding again in a week!
The worst was the fear I felt afterwards, how I had to force myself to get on the bike again and not have a panic attack! I hated being faced with my own middle-aged mortality. But happy to say, I gritted my teeth, rode through the anxiety and never looked back.
Haven't fallen since then, and that was 11 years ago! In fact, I joined DU then cuz I was at home recuperating, so some good came from it!
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)Glad you're ok, pink-o!!!
Locut0s
(6,154 posts)There was this very steep hill near my school. I had just built up enough confidence on my roller blades that I didn't think anything would be much of a problem. However I had neglected to learn how to properly stop on a hill. Something that became shockingly apparent about 1/2 way down said hill. At this point it was stop or plow into the house at the bottom of the road. So down I went on all fours, no knee pads, no wrist pads. Took all the skin off my knee and then some and very badly scarped up my wrists. Still have a small scar on my knee from this. Lol was that stupid.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)...riding the same bike I wiped out on yesterday. In the back of the house is a fairly steep hill with a little dirt trail (indicated in red):
Dum-dum me thought he could shoot down it on my bike. About half way down, I hit a significant rock and went over the handlebars. Fortunately, I landed in tall grass, so I wasn't hurt. But, man... I was BOOKING down the hill just before wiping out.
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
Lived about 1 - 1/2 miles from from my school - we used to walk it - me and my 3 siblings, but got a bike around grade 6 or 7.
I got pretty brave on my bike, but unbeknownst to me, a tar truck had come down my home street while I was at school one day, and then the township had spread tiny gravel on it.
Whipped around the corner as usual, hit that new gravel and tar mix, and my bike lost traction -
me sliding down on my left side scraping the hell out of it, and of course ruining my clothing.
In pain, got home -
MOTHER stripped me naked in the yard,
then washed me off with TURPENTINE -
didn't want tar in the house.
and gave me heck for ruining the clothes . . .
CC
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)texanwitch
(18,705 posts)I was lucky it was fall so I was wearing jeans and a light jacket.
The gravel was not there in the morning, I-10 was being built.
It was late, almost dark.
I didn't see the gravel.
I hit the gravel and went down.
My bike one way, I the other.
I can still feel the pain.
I was about 11 at the time, still have the scar on my knee.
My front tire had to be replaced, my sting ray bike never looked the same.
I was lucky, there was no traffic at the time.
I had another one going down a feeder lane going down into I-10.
I am still here.
Kids bounce back.