LOL, Linda!! Don't make me laugh. It hurts to laugh. But yeah--racing with a fever was better. I'm so sorry to hear about your burns. That had to hurt. We shall grow new flesh together. Ick.


Did I mention, aside from the left side of my face looking like raw meat, I also have a black eye? I look beeeeautiful. :roll:

Thank you everyone for your healing vibes. I don't know if it's the vibes or the Robaxin my doc prescribed, and that I took 30. minutes ago...but something is helping. I'd like to think it was the vibes myself. You guys are great.

JR: Honestly, I don't know what the heck happened. I do know that on the first loop, I had no problems. There was an intersection early in the loops that for some reason was not patrolled. I noted that because it was so odd. I just don't know what went wrong on that second loop. HFP is a very good outfit, and I race the Maumee Bay du every year. That is also one of theirs.

So: The ambulance comes and they put me on the stretcher with a backboard and brace, and I get to have my very first and hopefully last ambulance ride. I'm asked tons of questions both to get a rudimentary history, and to acertain my mental state. I got scared when I did here one of the EMT's say that my pupils were NOT equal (a 3 and a 4) but they were reactive. I knew to be happy that they were reactive, at least.

In due time we get to the hospital and I get registered and they do the vitals. The nurse asks, (Is your pulse normally so low? It's a 55" I said, "actually, that's pretty high for me." Eventually I'm wheeled into x-ray so they can get rads on my neck before they remove me from the backboard. Finally it comes back that there are no neck fractures, so they remove the board. My best guess at that point is that I had been on that board for an hour and a half. I was thinking I had to be injured even worse because I was in intense pain. As soon as they removed the brace and the board, I didn't feel like dancing or anything, but I felt much better. The nurse said "yeah, those boards are rough."

The next reason I was glad to have the board removed is that I got to rinse my mouth. I swished and rinsed and swished and rinsed about 10 times before I stopped spitting out dirt and gravel and grit, about 10 times before the water coming out of my mouth was neither black, nor bloody.(Last night and today, I've also been blowing black gritty snot out of my nose, isn't that a lovely image, though?) The nurse very patiently held me up through this, and helped me back to lie down. On to the CT scan...Every single place I lay, I left big blots of blood...The scan showed of course a concussion; and the doc, noting the lump at the base of my skull, and the bruising on my forehead, called it a closed head injury, and told me not for the first time, nor the last that day, how lucky I was.

Believe me, I do know that. Noting how low on my skull the lump comes down one of the things they told me is that how easily the day could have ended with me being paralyzed, or worse. I'll definitely take the concussion and all the soreness in the world that I feel, and will feel for a while.

The whiplash, etc in my neck is so bad, I literally have to turn my whole body when I want to glace to my left or right. I didn't know until the followup with my doc today how bruised and scrapped up I am on my shoulders and upper back. He thinks I may have torn my rotator cuff, but says there is too much bruising and trauma right now to make a diagnosis.

Back to him in 10 days for staple removal. (He told me there were 8 by the way, not 7) and follow-up. No running until at least then, and then we shall play it by ear. Believe it or not, I'm already missing that, although I certainly do not feel up to it. I can't imagine the feeling the pounding of the pavement in my head and in the muscles of my shoulders and neck. It even hurts to cough. He wrote me a note for the rest of this week off from work, because of the pain. He wanted to write it for this week and next, but I talked him down to this week, and then I'm to call him if some of this stuff isn't starting to resolve, and he'll write another note.

I think that's about all for now. Thank you for all the healing vibes. Keep 'em coming, and I'll keep you guys posted. Now that I have at least all week to have the forum at my disposal, I still won't be able to enjoy it, since I have to lay down every, oh about 40 minutes or so. Slowly too. I've never had to move quite so SLLLLLOOOOOWWWLLLY... ever in my life before. But I do know that I was very, very lucky. A fact my doc reiterated a few times today. As in: "You're lucky you didn't break your neck." You're lucky you didn't fracture your cheek or jaw or eye socket"