This week felt like I got kicked in the face… oh wait. I did.
Working for a church puts you with weird hours. With weird “work” hours you take weird hours off. So Monday mornings off have slowly become a tradition for me. I have some great friends who like to do adventurous stuff and that has created some great experiences. Monday mornings have become the time for a mountain bike ride. Scott and Kevin Carolan got me in to mountain biking this past summer and I have loved it. Mountain biking is not only a way to see beautiful country, but also a killer work out. There is the challenge of climbing some grueling hills and then the rush of flying down them hoping you don’t die on the way down. So I have really come to enjoy mountain biking. Now I am no fool… I know that this could be a dangerous sport, but I am geared up… or so I thought. I got the clothes, the gloves and the helmet (half helmet…. which will become important).
So this last Monday we decided to veer from our normal run at Hensley Lake in Madera and do the loop at the San Joaquin River Gorge. It was a beautiful day and Kevin and I were both ready for a workout. If you don’t know where the San Joaquin River Gorge is… as you are heading up to Shaver you will see a sign for Auberry, turn left there and a left at Squaws Leap and you will be there…. it is beautiful as pictured below.
From where you park you shoot down the hill (rather quickly) to this bridge, cross over the bridge and begin your climb. The idea was to climb to the top of the loop and bomb back down and then climb out. Once you cross the bridge and climb up you make a fork in the road here.
Those are two random guys from a photo I found from the Bee, but it gives you the idea. We forked right and climbed and climbed. We were literally, almost to the top of the hill, when I hit a rock. Being clipped in I decided to push thru and make it, but my balance was thrown off and I began to fall. Unfortunately, I was falling to the side of the hill with no barrier and I fell awkwardly and landed face first on a pill of rocks. Immediately, I knew I did something bad. I stuck my hands in my mouth and could tell my bottom jaw was no longer lining up. I tried to move my jaw over (after about a minute of getting up the strength to try this) and I all heard was grinding and popping of bones. Yup. My jaw was broken. So there Kevin and I were at the top of hill and I had a broken jaw. Luckily, Kevin is EMT certified. Unfortunately, there was nothing Kevin could do. So we had to go back downhill and then climb out. That was probably the most unfortunate part is that we were about the farthest in from our car as possible. So Kevin followed me as we slowly went down the hill and then climbed out.
Kevin didn’t know how to drive stick shift so I drove us to Clovis Community Medical. We tried another facility, but they sent us to the ER since they thought my jaw might be broken anyways there was no point in getting X-Rayed twice.
We pulled up into the ER side of Community and I went in for X-Rays. Two funny things happened as we were waiting for results from the X-Rays. One… a staff member at the hosptial who was probably in his high twenties asked how I got injured, Kevin who was doing my talking, told him. He the proceeded to get Kevin’s number so he could go with us next time. Awesome. Go with the guys who break their jaws! Two… when the results came in all the nurses walked by so excited… “Did you hear the news?” Their enthusiasm made you think Denise and I were pregnant. “You broke your jaw!” Ahh…. yea!!!
So they sent me home w/ a bottle of Vicodin and anti-infection drugs. I could go on and on about the story and process, but ended up having surgery at Community Hospital downtown and things went great. I have been at home w/ Denise recovery for the past couple days. I have an appointment on Friday to check on the progress and obviously am hoping for good news. I am currently drinking smoothies in the morning (Pineapple Juice, little Soy Milk, Banana, Strawberries, Mango, Blueberries and Juice Plus Complete Meal Powder) and soup for lunch/dinner. Denise has been making some BOMB soups…. including broccoli Cheese, Split Pea, Butternut Squash, and Sweet potato. Thanks to B+K Feil for bringing tomato Soup and to the Carolans for the Fruit Smoothie accessories.
All that to say. This has been a good lesson of sometimes the fun things in life can hurt you. I have learned to relax and rest a bit and have been spending some good time reading both books and the Bible. Just wanted to share my adventure with you all!
