My first crash…

Posted by Rashmi Tambe on Feb 1, 2009 in Motorcycling | 0 comments

So it appears that I had my first “track incident”. Yesterday I did my first trackday of the year with NESBA at Pacific Raceways. I had this whole LJ entry composed in my head about how I started off a bit slow, but steadily improved throughout the day until I was flying through the laps towards the latter sessions. Until the last session, which found me following a control rider through turn 9. I was following a bit closer than usual, as I’d  been told repeatedly in previous sessions that I needed to get my speed up and the control riders would never take you into a turn “too hot”.

Turns out that the red flag  went up mid-turn because of another incident on the track, the control rider saw it before me, and he abruptly slowed down and started toward the exit. Suddenly i found myself right on him and I braked instead of swerving to avoid a collission and went down. I’m not aure how fast I was going, but the bike was on me, and I remember sliding with it for a few seconds. I had the wind knocked out of me, like I’d been punched in the stomach and and my right leg really hurt.

The medics got my helmet, jacket and gloves off, and later my leather pants. I had massive bruising on my right knee and it hurt to even touch it or walk. They said that they didn’t see any immediate need to call for an ambulance, although I should certainly go to a hospital to get my leg looked at.

One other girl there followed me to the hospital and got me to the emergency room, which was a huge ordeal of rude, uncaring people, long waits, and cold rooms which had me shivering violently. They took xrays to determine the damage. The verdict was that the little finger on my left hand is fractured and would take about six weeks to heal. It’s in a splint now to prevent movement and although it doesn’t really hurt, is really restrictive. My right leg has no fracture, but I have massive bruisng and swelling, which I need to keep icing, and they say that it should be better in a few days. They said that the xray doesn’t reveal torn cartilages and if my leg is still hurting after a week, I might need to get surgery for the cartilages. I am really hoping that doesn’t happen. :(

So there it is – after 2 years of inicident free riding, it finally happened. I feel like a right idiot and am inevitably replaying the scene in my head a million times, thinking of “what-if”s. Mostly I feel like such an invalid. I’m not in pain when I’m stationary but it hurts like blazes to move, and I realize how every tiny action, like shutting a window, picking up a dropped fork, fetching an ice pack from the fridge require excruciating movement. I’m hoping and praying that it is over soon, and all worst case scenarios never come to pass. I hate being alone at times like this when it’s so hard to be independent.

Anyone want to come over and give me TLC? :(

(Oh, and this entire entry was typed with one hand.)