I've only been back in Spokane for a week and I'm already bruised and scraped and split open. On Wednesday I was riding my bike from my house to school over in Hawthorne, just minding my own business. It was funny because someone had honked at me, not like a toot, but like an actual "braaaaaap" kind of honk because apparently I was taking up too much of the shoulder by riding a little to the left of the white line and he/she didn't want to move over. So I was thinking about that a little bit and thinking about how many issues drivers have with bikes and how frustrating that is when I was getting to the driveway of Hawthorne. I leaned into the turn as I started going around the corner when I hit a patch of gravel and lost traction with my front wheel. As I was going down I reached out to catch myself with both hands which didn't actually help that much, thought "Oh crap I think this'll hurt," and then slammed my chin on the ground. Luckily there weren't any cars coming and there was a lady walking so she came over to see if I was okay. I got up and shook myself off, but she noticed that I was bleeding so she gave me a Kleenex she had in her pocket until I could get to a bathroom for some paper towels.
I went into the bathroom in Hawthorne, checked it out and saw how awesome the gash in my chin looked, then went to check in with my professor and let her know I was going to be a little late after all. Then I walked over to the health center, which is actually closed all summer, then I walked home to get my car and drive myself to the urgent care center down the road a bit.
I swear, the lines in urgent care are like the slowest lines ever. there were 3 people in front of me but it took at least a half-hour to talk to the receptionist. Once I was through that, it was another hour or so until someone could see me. The gauze I'd gotten was definitely stuck to my chin, so the nurse had to pour water all over it until it sort of came unstuck enough to peel it off. Gross. Then I got to sit through the scrubbing and rinsing, which felt weird more than painful, and thinking about it now makes me squirm. Then the doc came in and checked it out, and then I got some nice anesthetic shots to numb the stitching. The great part is the shots hurt more than anything. I actually almost passed out, which is funny because that has never happened to me before and I only started getting lightheaded a minute or two after the most painful shot.
I went with blue stitches to go with my bike. 9 sutures and 5 knots is the final tally, and some reasonably deep scrapes on my palms. Bandaids on the insides of your hands are nearly impossible to keep from falling off. Those big bandaids that cover huge wounds? Not really that sticky.
Inventory of pain as of Saturday morning: stitches in my chin, sore jaw/can't open my mouth wide enough to eat sandwiches, stiff neck, scraped palms, bruised right shoulder, bruise on my hip, scrape on my right shin. Pictures soon.
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