My exciting weekend

[starlady]

Obligatory disclaimer: I'm fine.

So I got doored on my way back from a housewarming party on Friday night and spent about four hours in the ER on Saturday morning. "Doored" means that I was biking along and a guy opened his driver's side door in front of my bike. I don't remember what happened because I blacked out for a few seconds and regained consciousness on the ground amongst the shattered safety glass of the window: I hit on my head, I think (I was wearing a helmet, or I wouldn't be writing this entry now), and the left side of my face--my left nostril fountained blood for a while--and I had lacerations on my left hand and the right side of my stomach, as well as bruises and cuts on both arms/sides of my torso. But the bottle of wine in my bag didn't break, go figure.

The people who hit me with the door were very nice; after I was less in shock they drove me to the hospital and sat with me while I was triaged; while they went to go look for the wife's phone, I called my roommate N, who came and sat with me and then drove me home at 4:45. The nurses at the hospital were on strike, so we had scab nurses from Alabama who were very nice but didn't know where things were and didn't have badges to get in and out of the wards, so that slowed things down. I wound up getting 13 stitches, 10 in my stomach and three in my hand. The nurse who cleaned my wounds was like, "Biking at night is dangerous!" and I think I actually said, "Well dude, I had a helmet and lights, what do you want from me?"

When we finally left the hospital the parking garage bill was $15.75 for three hours and they didn't take credit cards and I only had $13 cash, which thankfully was enough for them to let us leave the parking garage. Afterward, this was pretty hilarious.

The guy who hit me with the door bought me a new helmet and got my bike fixed yesterday (Saturday afternoon). My stitches will come out in 10-14 days. I think I may start wearing bike gloves; I suspect the laceration on my hand (which was a lot deeper than the ones on my stomach, the doctor said I could actually have done without stitches in my stomach, but shouldn't) might not have happened or been much less bad if I had been wearing gloves. And definitely the cuts on my right knuckles would not have happened.

There are a lot of bloodstains on my messenger bag now (they complement the coffee stains), and as I was riding over on BART last night this dude sitting across from me was clearly checking out the bloodstains and my bandaged hand and cut knuckles and bruised face and judging me. Screw you, dude.

But last night I had dinner with a lovely crew of people (marina, epershand, kuwdora, nextian, and J who's not on DW) and then we gathered even more people unto us and watched XMFC and played the X-Men: First Glass drinking game and I cannot convey how much awesome it was, seriously. ♥

Comments

[yeloson]

Aiyah. Let me know if you want some bodywork after the healing kicks in.

[starlady]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind!

[littlebutfierce]

Yikes!! Glad you're okay. Being doored is no joke (I hope I never have to know that from experience). ^^;;

[starlady]

I sort of was expecting it to happen at some point, just because, and it could have been better (I'd just come off a block that has a bit of a slope, so I was going faster than I would have been otherwise), but it could have been a lot worse too. I'm surprised I didn't break my nose in all honesty.

[juniperphoenix]

Ouch! I'm glad you're all right, and that the people who hit you were nice and helpful afterward.

[starlady]

Me too. Bill, the dude, told me that someone doored his daughter a few years ago, handed her $20 and said, "I'm really late for work, you don't have to tell anyone about this!" and drove off.

[holyschist]

I am glad you are relatively okay and that the people were nice and not horrid! I hope you recovery quickly.

[starlady]

Thanks! And yeah, this could have been a lot worse.

[lovepeaceohana]

Aiyee!! I am glad you are all right, and hope you are healing swiftly - but still, ack, scary!

I'm glad, too, that the people who hit you were nice about it (I can't imagine being hostile to someone you've just doored, but then, the world has seen worse) - do you know if their insurance will cover your hospital trip?

[starlady]

My health insurance is pretty good, so it should be fine, but if it's not, I have their contact information.

And yeah, it was scary, retrospectively. When I regained consciousness, it was pretty clear despite the shock that I'd survived relatively intact. But looking at my old helmet right now, and seeing the crack where I impacted, it's disquieting.

[anatsuno]

OW! I'm so glad you're okay. :( And that the people who doored you weren't assholes about it, though I admit I'm aghast that someone whose daughter has been doored would still not be careful enough to avoid doing it himself. :((

[starlady]

Thanks. And unfortunately all it takes is one time of not being cautious.

[via_ostiense]

He clearly thought you were an epic bar brawler. Or maybe coming out of an underground mixed martial arts championship.

[owlectomy]

Eee! Getting doored is one of those things that seems terribly scary -- I'm very glad that it wasn't any worse than it was. Hope your recovery is as smooth as possible under the circumstances!

[umadoshi]

Meeeep. I'm glad you're fundamentally okay.

[cofax7]

Oh, my! I'm so sorry.

I hope you heal up really well with no long-term issues.

I'm glad the driver was cool, though--so many aren't.

[boundbooks]

Holy @#$@$@$.

I'm glad that you're relatively okay, all things considered. I'm also glad to hear that the guy was nice and bought you a new helmet and got your bike fixed.

Wow, just, wow. Glad that you're relatively okay.

[wintercreek]

I said it on Twitter, and I'll say it again: Yikes! I am so, so glad to hear that you're mostly okay, and that the people who doored you were helpful afterwards. And also YAY for N for being your late-night ER companion.

<3 <3 <3

[yifu]

Ouch! Glad you're okay and that the guy was helpful. *sends a speedy revovery wish*

[nijibug]

/winces

I'm glad you're ok now and that the people were nice! Those injuries sound pretty painful though.

Did you guys end up drinking that unbroken bottle of wine? :'D

[starlady]

True story: when the triage nurse asked me to rate my pain I said a 0.5. I have a fairly high pain tolerance, and I've seen other people in excruciating pain enough to know that I was nowhere near it. Maybe I was at a 1, and lowballed myself, but not more than that. The drug-seeking guy who was triaged after me, however, was totally overrating his own pain, because there's no way someone can be at a 9 and be speaking steadily or sitting up straight in their chair.

The wine will get drunk eventually, I'm sure. :)

[lilacsigil]

I'm glad you're okay and the driver was helpful! I've only been doored once, and fortunately I went sideways rather than over the handlebars or into the window, but the guy just drove off!

[torachan]

Yikes! Glad you're okay.

[laceblade]

I'm glad you're okay! And I'm glad the door-er was so helpful, too!

[snarp]

Scary! I hope there are no problems with the stitches healing, or the insurance.

[starlady]

Me too! I think the insurance should be fine; we'll see.

[thistleingrey]

Ach. Glad you're basically okay! Rest well.

[badgerbag]

OMG! Glad you're (relatively) okay. Concussion can be very weird! Take it easy and follow up...

[starlady]

Luckily, I wasn't concussed, but yeah, taking it as easy as possible… Thanks. :)

[oyceter]

OMG so glad you're okay!

Btw, I do in fact have the book we were talking about if you want to borrow!

[starlady]

I would like to borrow it!

And I'm glad too.

[surpassingly]

Gaaaaaah!

I'm glad you're doing okay. Thinking good thoughts for your recovery.

[busaikko]

Wow! *hugs you gingerly* That sounds gruesome. I'm glad you're okay (thank goodness for helmets!) and send best wishes ♥

[starlady]

It wasn't that gruesome, really! My nose bled a lot, because that's what noses do, but the most painful part of the whole thing was getting the injections of local anaesthetic.

It could have been much worse, though. I'm really surprised I didn't break my nose at the least, really.

[seekingferret]

Oh, no... I'm glad you survived mostly fine.

As a mostly motorist, I'm in constant terror of hitting a biker. There was an incident a few months back where a biker tried to sneak past me on the left as I was waiting to make a left turn and he entered my blind spot as I started to turn and I almost hit him before I realized what he was doing and slammed the brakes. It's so easy to lose track of a bike when you're in a car and so easy to do damage because of the size difference.

[starlady]

Yeah, exactly. I try not to be the arrogant biker who cuts cars off with impunity, because that's suicidal, but of course it only takes one time to forget to check before you get out of the car. :(

[karenhealey]

AUGH CRAP dooring is awful.

I'm sorry that you're hurting, and glad it wasn't worse.

[starlady]

Yeah, it was not fun! I'm not terribly sad about not being able to remember the actual dooring itself.

And thanks! I think I'm doing pretty well in terms of recovery so far--I really have remarkably few bruises when I think about it.