OUCH!

I can check off another one of those things you wish you never had to deal with while riding. On my second day on the road I had just crossed into Alabama and I sneezed... I heard a pop. I yelled. It was a grunt kind of like those tennis players but times 10,000. I immediately pulled to the side of the road and laid my head down on Blue's tank.

My left side had been hurting me the last week I was in Florida. I had a swollen stomach and I was concerned that it could of been an enlarged spleen. Since I don't have insurance I figured I would wait until I made it to my parents house and then find a low cost clinic to get it checked out. Well, when I sneezed I wasn't sure what had happened. All I heard was a pop and an extreme amount of pain... of course at 65mph.

So, here I am on the side of the road not sure if I get back on the road or what I do. I told myself whatever it was the pain will go away so I started riding again. Every little move I made I would grunt. No tears just a whole lot of grunting.

I had to get on an interstate for a short distance and the exit I took to get back on the highway had a hospital sign. I debated if I should go to the ER or not... was I really going to be able to drive another 7+ hours to my parents house in this amount of pain. I knew as soon as I tried to put my foot down to stop at a light the ER was a must. I screamed in pain and luckily the hospital was right off the highway I was on.

I walk into the ER not even knowing what town I was in and the first thing I said was: "my name is Jackie... what town am I in". Now for someone who has been in psych hospitals you think I would know this is not a very good first statement to make. The guy at the desk looked up at me and I corrected myself very quickly... "sorry, my name is Jackie and I am traveling thru... can you tell me what town I am in?" The concerned look disappeared from the man's face as he told me I was in Opelika.

I kind of chuckled to myself as I remembered this time my friend had brought me to the psych hospital in Nashville. Her and I were meeting with an intake person and they were chatting about me and I was kind of spacing off. I really didn't want to be there... but I guess who would. Anyway, there was this fly buzzing around my head and I decided to try to catch it using 2 fingers as if they were chop sticks. You know like in Karate Kid. So here I am in the intake room as I was being put in to a psych ward trying to catch a fly with my 2 fingers. I was doing these quick motions in the air all around my head. Their conversation stopped and they both just stared at me. I stopped what I was doing and told them I was trying to catch this fly. I don't think that helped my situation at all. haha

Anyway... So I told him how I was in pain and that I was riding thru on my Harley with my 2 dogs and cat. He was very nice and I had got to the hospital at the right time because it was not busy. It was a Sunday morning so I figured everyone was at church. They did all the vitals and such and each person I had to meet with I had to tell them every hour or so I had to go check on my pets in my trailer. They were quite accommodating.

At first the nurses kind of gave me this suspicious look... I mean here I am a smelly, dirty, Harley riding gypsy coming in looking for pain meds. It is unfortunate that people's first assumption is the worst in people but I guess I can't blame them. Once I started talking about my travels and such their suspicion had turned into intrigue.

They gave me a couple shots of muscle relaxers and took a few x-rays. I ended up with 2 broken ribs. They gave me a couple of prescriptions and told me what I could take while riding and what I could not... most was not. I got in and out of the hospital in about 4 hours and back on the road.

I drove a bit and stopped to get my prescriptions at the first Walmart I found so I would have something for the pain in a couple hours when the shots would wear off.

I got into Birmingham mid afternoon and was going down this huge hill with a light at the bottom. I had no problem stopping at that light but right after that light my foot brake went out. So here I am in a whole lot of pain at a gas station working on my bike. Luckily, I needed to pump the brake a bit and add a little bit of brake fluid and all was good. I decided that I was done for the day and there was a Walmart 3 blocks away.

I stopped for the night and got all settled into my little trailer. Laying in there like I usually do I realized I couldn't get back up. What was I thinking... I honestly thought I would have to call the police to get the jaws of life to get me out of my trailer. I wasn't able to sit up at all. I tried pulling myself up using the cub-bards inside the trailer and pushing myself up with my right arm not using the left. It all caused so much pain. I opened the door and tried to use the door way to pull myself up. I realized I was just going to have to do it quickly and hope I don't pass out from the pain. I finally got myself in a seated position but I still had to get my legs out of the door so I could stand up. So I am shifting a little bit at a time, grunting each time. Finally about 10+ minutes later my feet were outside the trailer and all I had to do was stand up. I held my breath and pushed myself up screaming just a bit.

As you can imagine it was quite the painful night. I had to sleep in this trailer somehow so I decided I would sleep sitting up so all I had to do was wiggle myself out of the trailer in the morning. I didn't sleep to well and was on the road again at 3:30am.

The rest of the way to my parents house was pretty uneventful. My side didn't hurt so much while I was on the bike and I had made adjustments to the way I rode so I would not be in pain when I would stop and go. Instead of putting both feet down to stop at the same time and up to go at the same time my right foot had to take on most of the weight so right foot first and then the left so there was no pain.

I am not in much pain 5 days later but I still ache a bit. Just another story to tell. ;)