Tuesday, December 20, 2005

doored!

i got doored by a car while riding my bike home from work yesterday. i've kinda been waiting for that moment to happen. i've had several close calls and most of our friends have been hit by opening car doors while cycling. i don't remember much. just all of a sudden a door swung infront of me as i'm riding in the bike lane next to a row of parked cars and the next thing i know i'm trying to stop myself from sliding along the pavement on my arm. i didn't have time to swerve, hit my breaks or even yell. the woman who hit me seemed more shaken up than i was at the time. she gave me her details and said she'd pay for any bike repairs or medical expenses. by the time i got home a few minutes later it started to hit me. the grazings and giant red bruises on my arm were growing bigger and i had a bump on the side of my head from my sunglasses banging on the side of my head as a fell (fortunately i was wearing my helmet-- i looked at it this morning though and there's not even a sign of a scratch or dent on it). i called zac at work all shaken up. he was supposed to be working until 8pm (it was just after 5:30 when i called him). he got worried and said i needed to go to the hospital and have my wrist xrayed. i was too upset to hop on the tram and take the 10 minute trip the hospital and zac knows i don't really like cabs so he managed to get a hold of one of his bosses at home and get permission to leave and take the work car to come and get me. so he drove 45 minutes through peak hour trafffic (it only takes him up to 30 minutes by bike) and got me and took me to the e.r. when we got there the reception nurse expained that they had a lot of doctors on duty but not enough beds (they were working on a couple people in the waiting area). she said that cuz i didn't need a bed a doctor would probably be available to look at me soon but it may take a while before i could have xrays done. 20 minutes later someone came and took me for xrays and then told me to go back the the waiting room and wait for the doctor. we figured it wouldn't be much longer now cuz the xrays were supposed to be the long wait. 3 1/2 hrs later a doctor came for me. nothing is broken (just a couple of gross looking, really sore red bruises and grazes). i got a tetnus shot out of it though. i also missed out on the most interesting moment in the waiting room aparently. zac said while i was in with the doctor a guy came in wearing a zebra costume (without the headpiece) and a woman came in wearing a weird looking cocktail dress with long gloves on her arms and holding a cigarette on a stick in her hand above her head. all i got to see was a really drunk guy (3 times he was dragged in by different people over the 4 hrs we were there), a lot of older people who looked really sick or in pain and a little girl with a broken arm that they sent off to childrens hospital cuz they were so overloaded at the e.r.

1 comment:

Rodney Olsen said...

I've heard so much about being doored over the years but, thankfully, I've managed to avoid it so far.

I ride to and from work every day and have done a fair bit of long distance cycling too.

I've had a few close calls but no contact at this point.