So I Had a Dinger

 I went on a motorcycle ride with my nephew Ethan yesterday, Saturday June 8th 2024. It was a great day for riding and I enjoy Ethan's company a lot. So it was fun.

Later in the afternoon we went our separate ways. Life and all that you know.

I was heading through Sunapee, Newport, Claremont, Charlestown, to Keene, and then Marlborough NH to go to a meeting. Had plenty of time and was taking it easy. No worries. Right?

At about 5:20 in the evening I was coming up the hill out of Newport NH. It was one lane and there is a Left Turn only lane that goes to Unity NH coming up on my left. There is a car in the Left Turn lane waiting to turn.

What I'm going to tell next happened in about 3 seconds.

I was coming up behind the car waiting to turn Left, in my lane, and had about 30 feet before I would be in front of them and gone.

All of a sudden a little white car pulled out from in front of them turning into my lane to go in my direction.

So I panicked. I locked it up and went sideways. The last thing I remember was being sideways going towards the vehicle.

The next thing I know I am in a gurney with an ambulance crew working on me. I think that I was knocked for somewhere between 5 to 15 minutes.

They started asking me questions a lot of which I was able to answer. They asked me what happened and I could not remember. They seem to relax a couple of minutes later when I blurted out, "That MotherF***er Cut Me Off!"

I got taken to a nearby location where  was loaded onto a Helicopter and life flighted to Dartmouth/Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon NH. A very fine teaching Hospital. Probably because I had been knocked out.

At that hospital we went through all the hospital stuff, questions, paperwork, etc. They did look up my sister that works in the Cath Lab there and call her. That was nice.

Did a full MRI of my head and neck. After that I was rotating my shoulder, not much as it and my elbow hurt, and I felt it slipping in and out of socket. At least that is what it felt like.

I reported that and a short while later we went and did some X-Rays on my chest and shoulder.

At the end of it all what we found out was no damage to my head. I am already nuts so that does not count. I was knocked out and no swelling or any other sign of any other trauma. Whew...

What I do have is a severe laceration and bruise on my right elbow, a separated right shoulder, some fractured right ribs, and a broken right collar bone. And I will be getting surgically fixed soon.

It could have been a heck of a lot worse. I am grateful to have gotten off as slightly as I did.

After a lot of hours I was released and came back here to recuperate. It has been Ibuprofen and Advil on a strict schedule ever since.

And it is manageable.

Those of you who know me know I am not a fan of the American Medical Insurance System. I have railed about that before and I will again.

And today I want to talk about the often underappreciated people who work on the front lines in this system. The people who take care of us.

1st off the 1st Responders on the scene who were dealing with me in the early stages. I was really confused. They were calm and professional getting all the info they needed while establishing that I was actually present and not dazed.

Then there was the crew in the chopper making sure that I knew what was happening at all times so there were no surprises for me. Again, calm and professional.

And then the various Medical Techs, Nurses, and Doctors that I dealt with. They all were running around, because it was a busy night, yet when they were dealing with me I felt like they were With Me. If you know what I mean. Not distracted and thinking about other stuff, but present with me as a person. And calm and professional.

At no time did I ever feel uninformed or that there were things being kept from me. At no time did I feel like these folks were not fully involved in what they were doing.

Our Health Care Professionals are often overworked and underpaid. They study long and hard to get the positions they are in and often wrack up some substantial bills to do so. And they do an incredible job taking of US.

And are, I feel, vastly unappreciated by us. Those they take care of.

So when you see a First Responder out and about wave and smile at the very least. Do the same for Med Techs, Nurses, and Doctors.

They are incredible people doing an incredible job.

Let them know that you See them.