Bike Survives Mountain Crash

Except for the hairline fracture in his collar bone, the swollen knee, the bruises on his head, and the weird flesh wound on his shoulder, Mark is okay.

Yesterday morning he did not return from his mountain biking expedition at the regular time. I was moderately concerned, so left a message on his cell. Just as I was becoming really concerned, our front door opened, much more slowly than it normally does, and a hunchback-mud creature appeared. It said "I fell off my bike." Oh man. He was covered in dirt and his shirt was torn. I couldn't check out every part of him fast enough. His hair was dirty and matted. The whole in his shirt revealed the strangest gash/scrape I've ever seen. It was white, no blood. His ear had dried blood coming from it (from being slightly torn, not from inside.) There were mild bruises on his temple and his cheek. His knee was swollen and kind of red. Clearly he was shaken by the event. He told me that he went over the handle bars. Then he showed me his helmet. It was cracked in several places. That could have been his head! So he took a shower and I patched the flesh wound. Of course I took this picture before covering it.


I called the doctor who advised us to go to the emergency room. So we packed up the kid and went. He got x-rays of his knee and shoulder, which he reports hurt worst of all. Neither x-ray showed any broken bones and the doctor suspects a hairline fracture in the collar bone because it didn't show up but seems like one. When the nurse arrived, she said "Are you the mountain biker?" Funny. She wrapped the knee in a stretchy bandage and put ice on it. Another nurse recovered the flesh wound, same as I did, and said I did it just as they would have. Good. They gave him Tylenol and a prescription for Vicodin in case the pain gets worse. He asked me to fill that today. He suspects needing it after work today, where he went this morning.

Ask him for the whole story of how it happened. It was funny because the doctor asked him if he had been doing tricks. Ha! Mark doesn't do "tricks." Still, it's a gripping story.

The bike is fine.

For another gorey picture, scroll down to "Ode to the Man" and see his petal gash.