Lights out

I wasn't sure about whether to blog about this or not. It's not something I really wanted to remember, or re-live.
It was monday morning and I was riding into work just like I always do. Same route. Same old routine. I was on my way to the gym to shower and change into my work clothes.

I was heading down the road just behind the UofT athletic centre, south of Harbord Street. I heard some scraping coming from my bike. I looked down for five seconds. Then the lights went out. I hit something, I hit something real hard. I heard a crunch and the breaking of glass. The wind was knocked out of me. I didn't know what had happened. I couldn't breathe. I repeatedly kept saying 'oh God.' I thought about my wife and son as I saw blood gushing to the road. It all happened so fast. I thought I had broken my teeth because I spit out some hard fragments, but I think they were pieces of glass from the rear windshield of the vehicle I had just struck. I used my tongue to check if I still had all of my teeth. I did. I was even coherent enough to use my fingers to check if they were loose and they weren't. I then checked my nose. I touched it and felt something jagged. 'Oh God' I thought. My nose was broken. I wanted to shut my eyes and wake up from this bad dream. But someone was shouting to me, to keep my eyes open. People were there right away. I heard voices of people dialing 9-1-1. But I couldn't see any faces. I'm not sure if I blacked out or not. And I'm not sure how much time passed before the ambulance arrived.

I was bleeding a lot. It was pouring out of my nose and I was spitting the overflow out of my mouth. A man had given me some napkins to cover the wound and guided my hand to hold it there. Then someone had brought me an ice pack. And the man told me to put it on my forehead. I looked to my left and my bike was on the ground. I looked to my right and I saw a shattered rear window of a mazda mpv. My head must have shattered the rear windshield. I looked again to my left and then to my right. I saw a "No Parking" sign. How could this be happening. I looked on the ground and saw my oakley frames, I didn't see the lens. Then I saw something that looked like it could be bone fragments. I felt ill and just wanted to close my eyes and lie down. But the same male voice kept telling me to keep them open and kept me sitting sort of upright. I heard him saying the ambulance should be here by now. I couldn't tell how much time was passing. I never did see that guy's face, nor the others who were around me. But to him and the people who helped me on monday morning at around 9:20am - a big thank you.

An EMS car was the first to arrive. His was the first face I actually saw. He asked me if my neck hurt. I pointed to the area between my neck and shoulder. There was a sharp pain there. He put a big piece of gauze on the gash on my nose. I kept the icepack on my forehead. The cold was comforting. I didn't move or react very much. I knew I was in shock at what just happened.

Then the ambulance arrived. I still didn't know how much time was passing. The only thing running through my mind was Tresa and Kieran. Then next thing I knew they strapped a neck brace on me and strapped me to a board and getting ready to put me on a stretcher. Before it was too late, I asked the EMS guy to retrieve my oakley frames. I noticed I could barely speak. He told me that the glasses themselves were smashed to pieces, but he got the frame for me. I couldn't turn my head. They had my head immobilized and I really felt confined like I was in a straight-jacket. I was in an ambulance and heading to the ER. They were going to take me to Toronto Western. I said that my wife worked there, but she was at home on maternity leave. I was thinking about Tresa, and thinking how freaked out she would be once she found out what had just happened. I just wanted to tell her I was going to be alright.