My Grandsons came up earlier to do a little shooting with me. We'd shoot a little, then they'd ride their bikes, shoot a little more, etc. We'd just finished shooting a round, and they decided they wanted some of their trucks to play with in the sand box. Grandma was outside with us, so she said she'd keep an eye on them while I went in and got the trucks.
I went inside, put a bunch of their favorites in a box and headed out the door with them.
While I was in the house looking for the requested trucks, my oldest grandson, 5, decided to take a spin on his bike. Grandma didn't notice that he left it laying directly in front of the bottom step on the porch.
I walked out the door, through the porch, and down the steps. I was holding the box out in front, so I couldn't see what was below me.
The first two steps went fine, but when I stepped off the third step, expecting to feel solid ground underfoot, something went wrong. I didn't know exactly what happened at first. My Left foot shot out to the side instead of down, and I pitched forward, landing on something really hard, with a box of not so soft trucks in between my midsection and whatever it was that I fell on. Turned out that it was a bicycle. :eek:
My foot apparently landed on the front tire that happened to be up in a vertical position at the time. It spun, sending my left leg out into a horizontal position as I went down. My knees both need to be replaced, and they don't feel too peachy, on a good day. The right one went down hard. I'm not sure what part of the bike frame it landed on, and I guess it really doesn't matter. It was hard, and my momentum had a hundred and eighty five pounds behind it.
I've got three herniated disks in my back. One up by my neck, one in the middle, and the other down low by my hips. When my upper body hit, the box I was carrying caused my neck to snap forward hard, and my lower back to arch forward like it would if you leaned backwards, only a lot faster, and harder.
I layed there for a few minutes, hoping the pain would let up enough so I could breath again, then rolled over onto the ground on my back.
I'm laying there looking up at two scared kids and a worried grandma, trying not to show how much pain I'm in, and further scaring everybody.
My girlfriend wanted to call 911, but I talked her out of it. I've taken hydrocodone for my back for the past couple years, so Sharon went in and got me a couple, while I got myself propped up, and tried to joke with the kids to calm them down.
After a few minutes, I gimped into the house, laid down and waited for the pain pills to kick in. Seemed like it took forever. Here I sit now, with a heating pad on my lower back, a lidocaine patch on my neck, and ice on a knee that's swelled up to about half again it's usual size.
The silver lining in all this, is that I didn't tear up my rotator cuffs. They're pretty well worn out too, and it doesn't take much to get them aggravated. I had a stretch last winter where I had to baby them, and couldn't shoot my bow for a while, waiting for them to calm down again. It took a while this spring to get my shooting back in the groove for turkey season.
I wanted to hunt tomorrow, but at this point, I don't know if It's going to happen. It's not looking too good right now, but I'm stubborn, and everything hurts every day anyway. We'll see how I feel at 3:30 tomorrow morning.
Bob
Topic: The Dangers Of Bicycling And Target Practice (Read 481 times)
