justcallmedoctoralready

I wanted to make this post 50% about what happened and 50% educational, but the fuzziness/heaviness in my brain will keep me from doing advanced thinking today.

This past Saturday, I was on an awesome hilly 50 mile ride all in an attempt to complete the strava challenge of “suffering” for 4 hours on the bike over 2 days for Sufferlandrian National Day….a completely do-able challenge. I know, to some this sounds a little crazy. The Sufferfest is a company that produces cycling training videos for when you gotta be stuck on the trainer for whatever reason. They will be coming out with treadmill workouts soon too, which is kind of perfect for the all the indoor time I’ll be spending once medical school starts! Yay -_-

Anyways, I was 7 miles….7 MILES!!…. away from home, feeling strong ready to kick some butt on the last 3 hills in the way between myself and glory. It had been sprinkling, but the roads were still perfectly rideable. I approached some train tracks, tracks I had ridden over several times…….but this time my front wheel slipped just enough and got caught in one of the tracks. I came to a screeching halt, as I was slammed into the asphalt on my left side.

Unfortunately, my head took the greatest impact. I can still vividly remember in slow motion yelling “OH SHIT” as my head turning into a bouncy ball. Fortunately, I was wearing a helmet.

…..Insert some statistics about how helmets save lives….blahblahblah…..

Well my trusty Giro Skyla did its job. It cracked where I hit, and I only got a small contusion on the left side of the head.

My vision on my left eye was affected for up to a half hour afterwords, while I waited for my boyfriend to pick me up. I couldn’t ride any further. I couldn’t think or see straight, I got nauseous, and almost blacked out.

We decided to go straight to the ER, because I have pre-existing retina issues that put me at a higher risk of retinal detachment. So I was freaking out about going blind. Not good timing, about 3ish weeks before starting medical school. I sorta gotta SEE for that…..

Naturally, all hell was breaking loose at the ER, AND their electronic records were down the entire day. So I had a LONG not so pleasant stay in the overflow room for about 12 hours. I got a head CT that ruled out any brain bleeds.

I do have a concussion though. My first one ever, and it sucks.

But I guess I’m a real cyclist now or something…..

wear your helmets kids. Probably kept my head from getting cracked open like a walnut, thank God.

I just had to check my calendar because I thought it was Friday already, given what I’ve gotten done this week. I had a ton of medical school electronic forms to fill out that were due today. Finally got to choose my white coat size and order my tickets for the white coat ceremony! *Ahhhhh* *girlyscreams* *its really happening!!!* I also had to fill out a biosketch asking about my interests, hobbies, volunteer and research experiences. I hope people don’t think I’m weird because I’m pretty sure I listed cycling and eating more than once, hahaha.

Ah, Taylor Swift lyrics I can actually relate to!

Well, all those forms are filled out, and I’m one step closer to starting school 🙂 In addition to med school paperwork, and getting more stuff to do at work, I got my first official bike fitting done yesterday! Turns out I was already in a decent position, so things needed to get tweaked just a little. But its incredible how a few mm-cm can make such a huge difference! My fitter let me go for a ride to test it out, since my left leg used to go numb at around 17-19 miles. After 18.5 miles, I felt great….no numbness in my leg, or my hands (which usually go after 10ish miles). Success! Hopefully… What a full week its been. I feel like I need the weekend stat. But till then, more work, more paperwork, and more riding. Gotta test out my new position!