This is going to be a short entry today detailing what happened to me last week. Looking back now, it’s kinda funny; although at the time it didn’t seem so, let me tell you. But the title today says there is something that DBS doesn’t do; yes, it has eliminated my cramps, my stiffness for the most part is gone, and my med schedule is a lot less than it was. I still need some more tuning on the left side, and some rehab for balance (we think that I spent so many years learning how to walk and balance with the stiffness that now I have to relearn how to balance without it!), but for the most part things are a 1000x better.
Except for that one thing that DBS doesn’t do – and that is to impart some common sense!
Where did my common sense go?
So… here’s the story of the week: Last week (Tuesday) I spent the better part of the afternoon in the emergency room. Why, you ask? Because my middle name is STUPID! You see, that afternoon I took my bike out of the basement and hung it in the garage (for easy access during the summer). While I was taking it up from downstairs, I noticed that something didn’t seem right about it – the brakes were rubbing and the something on the wheels felt weird. Well, I decided I should ride it down the driveway and back just to see what was wrong. Being the smart guy that I am, I figured ‘Hey this is just a short distance, I don’t need my helmet for this!‘ Yeah, right…
Also, because I am such a smart dude, I forgot that the bike, being downstairs all winter, had FLAT tires! So I jumped on the bike and it started down the driveway (because it is inclined). Immediately I thought ‘Whoops, you idiot, the tires are flat, better stop now!‘ Which I tried to do, but if anyone has ever ridden a bike with flat tires, you know how unstable it can be… So I hit the brakes, the front tire goes sideways, and I topple off the left side. Next thing I knew my head was hitting the concrete driveway!!
Oh No!
Luckily I didn’t pass out – All I remember is immediately jumping up, saying ‘Oh God help me‘ over and over, and then running into the house. All I could think of at that time was that I’ve screwed up or broken my DBS hardware and/or basically given myself brain damage (forgetting that I probably already had some brain damage for being that stupid in the first place!) As I looked into the bathroom mirror, I was somewhat relieved to see that I had hit my head directly above my left eye, rather that over the DBS hardware and wires. But I also had a big scrape over that left eye, on my nose, left arm, left leg, etc. And a rather bloody nose.
My wife wasn’t home at the time to witness this act of stupidity (thank goodness), so I called my father-in-law to run me down to the Urgent Care at my doctor’s office. But when I got there, the nurse came out, took one look at me (and heard about me having DBS only four weeks ago) and said they won’t see me – I need to go to the emergency room immediately because of possible concussion, the DBS hardware, etc. So off we went – by this time I had decided I had better call my wife and let her know. Which I did (although she didn’t freak out as much as I thought she would – at least on the phone anyway) and she met us there. Luckily for me, the emergency room was pretty light that day so they got me right in.
The Waiting Game
Even if they are not busy, it seems the main purpose of the emergency room is to make you wait. They got me into a room fairly quickly, but then the waiting game began. Probably an hour before a ‘real‘ doctor showed up (my neurologist, who I had called previously, called just as the doctor was coming in so they got to talk among themselves right off the bat); and after a quick exam the doctor thought I was not too bad off (eyes were working well, I seemed fully conscious, no headache, and not a lot of pain – at that moment) but just to be sure they decided to give me a CAT scan. Which, of course, took another hour to get me in, then another hour to read the results. Lucky for me, no brain damage (at least from falling off the bike) and no damage to the DBS hardware. I was told that I could get dressed, and they would release me; which of course took another hour to get the paperwork done and signed off.
Homeward Bound
This all happened around 2 pm, and by the time we left (after 7 pm) I had not eaten anything since breakfast, so I was starving. We stopped by and grabbed some subs to take home (of course, I was told to stay in the car and my wife would go in to get them). And then, after a number of hours, we were back home. By this time my left eye was beginning to get black and blue (I’ve had a nice shiner for the last week), and looked like I had been in a fight that I lost! But everything was OK with my DBS, and for that I was thankful.
The Morale of the Story
Looking at the brighter side of this, there were a couple of good things that came out of this:
- I got a copy of the CAT scan so now I can see all the DBS hardware in place in my head!
- I learned some valuable lessons:
- DBS doesn’t help with stupidity or common sense!
- From now on, anytime I get near that bike, my helmet is going on! (On Thursday I finally got around to pumping up those tires, and my wife was laughing at me cause I had my helmet on for that! Hey, knowing my luck, the bike would have fallen off the rack and hit me on the head! I wasn’t taking ANY chances!)
- And the lesson for everyone else is: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS wear a helmet when riding your bike, even just down the driveway!
As a side note, I’ve always wanted to teach a required collage course called “Tom’s Common Sense 101” where I would teach such things as (including the consequences of ignoring these rules): Look both ways when crossing the street; don’t spend more money than you earn; be kind to people; don’t be a ‘big mouth‘; don’t gossip (i.e. be careful of stones that you throw); and DON’T RIDE YOUR BIKE OR MOTERCYCLE WITHOUT A HELMET!! Hmm… now I wonder if -I- would be qualified to teach this class!
Anyway, that’s it for now. Got a couple of other entries coming up soon, but they are taking me a little longer to write. So keep checking, my loyal readers, more new stuff coming up!
