Four bike/mtb trips in total - shoulda been five
First was on my new BMX bike when I was about 12 and it was my first bike with rim brakes instead of a coaster brake - I'm sure you know where this is going... So I'm going down the hill towards my friends place to show him the new bike and go for a ride he's already out in the front yard. I figure I'll be cool and pull a big power skid in front of his house and grab a mit full of front brake and instantly turn into superman. Hands meet cheese grater. The worst part about these sorts of things is getting the gravel scrubbed out of your flesh, and of course not being able to use your hands very much for the next week or so. For a 12 year old boy this is a hard thing to deal with.
Round two is many years later and doing a lawn dart impression of an elevated structure. In hindsight continuing the ride was not smart and after another 2-3 minutes I realized I should probably go to the hospital as my right arm/hand was starting to go numb. Luckily nothing showed up broken or damaged on the MRI, doc said I just had what they called a stinger or temp nerve damage. Thankfully my left hand was fully operational till the right healed up.
Third was stitches after putting a chainsaw into my leg - glad it was just the small saw. No injured hands but the hit on the leg was a bit close to the jewels for comfort.
Fourth was a bail on Ragdoll, I went OTB on the rockface/chute and as I went down my left hand clipped the rock and when I stood up I knew I was hurt. When I look at my left had my pink and ring finger were at 90 degrees to where they should have been. When I pulled them back into place they made a sound like a cotton tshirt tearing. I probably should of gone to the hospital, but ya know bro courage with my riding buddies staring at my hand and saying you should get that looked at meant nah, I'm all good. I couldn't grip anything for a couple of weeks so thank goodness for the right hand being ok.
The "best" one was from riding my bike to high school. It was winter time and I'd just come out of the house so I've got my head down and am breathing into my jacket to try and keep my face warm and at the same time looking down at my pedals to get my feet into my toe clips. I thought I was coasting straight down the street but I drifting at a slight angle and I ended up bumping into a neighbour's car. It was just a slight bump, but because I had my head down my hands just automatically shot out in front of me to break my fall. Problem is the car was a Firechicken, with louvres on the back window - ya know kinda life Venetian blinds people used to put on the back windows on the outside of their cars? Anyway as I fell forward the pink and ring finger on the right had went into the louvers. When I went to push myself up after falling down I knew my hand was hurt and I tell people the whitest thing you will ever see is your own bone sticking out of your body. In falling forward the ring finger had gotten trapped between two of the louvres and it snapped the bone between the two knuckles and just pulled the end of my finger off. When I saw my hand that's when I started yelling. One of the kids that lived next door was autistic and he would often run around just yelling and screaming for no reason. My mom was still asleep but she heard the yelling and woke up and thought what the hell is that kid up to at this hour of the morning. Then the yelling go closer and sounded like it was coming from the house. Before I went into the house tho I had the presence of mind to grab the end of my finger that was stuck in the louvres. The tendon that attaches to the tip of your finger tore right out of the muscle in my forearm, so when I grabbed the finger there was like 12" of tendon hanging out of it, like a string of linguine. I put the finger in the palm of hand, picked up my bike with my other hand and walked the 50ft or so to my basement door. When I got inside for some reason I thought to grab an empty ice cream bucket lid from the storage room to put under my hand so I would drip blood all over the house. Then mom took me to the hospital - it was like a 5 drive. The person I felt the worst for that day was actually the nurse at the hospital. I had been clutching my right hand with the left to stop the bleeding and to make sure I didn't drop the end of my finger. When I went to get on the exam table I sat on the edge and put my left leg up and then went to swing my right leg up as I didn't have my hands to support me. As I swung my right leg up I caught the nurse right between the legs, like punting a football. Did I mention the nurse happened to be male? So there I am with a severed finger and the nurse is on the floor trying to get his wind back after just getting kicked in the junk. I think it was a Monday too.
