Cherishing my best friend

Well, yesterday early evening, there I was going out to take a friend her forgotten passport so she could get back to America after she finished sightseeing Canada with a couple of teenage German visitors and I thought to myself, "ya know, Kait, those clouds look pretty menacing." But I didn't listen to myself, so I hopped on my bike anyway and started out on the hour long trip to meet a pal who would pony express the passport the other hour, and no more than 10 minutes into the trip, it started to sprinkle. I thought to myself, "ah, you've done this before, no big deal." Well, another ten minutes into the ride and suddenly there were monster gusts of wind coming from different directions- unpredictably, and it felt like my skin was on fire from all the little drops hitting me at 60 mph. Finally, I started listening to my smarter self, when I saw the 15th mile turnover on my trip odometer and realized I had another forty to go. I was already soaked to the skin and the water was pooling under me on that big comfy seat. It was also literally pouring into my hiking boots and the temperature suddenly dropped twenty degrees. The lightening started and I headed for the next exit to turn my stupid ass self around and go home. It took another twenty minutes of very scary riding behind cars I was sure couldn't see me and probably didn't care if they could as they were just trying to keep it between the lines like I was. As I pulled into the driveway the rain started coming down at my house. I ran inside, called the other half of the pony express and told him of my unbelievable stupidity and the sudden clarity that I was a bonafide idiot, and arranged for a new meeting place to drop off the passport. I got home around 9 in my nice warm and dry truck- a reminder to self- appreciate all you have, including the truck that you have been neglecting since you got the motorcycle. An hour later just as I was crawling into bed, still appreciating the lesson learned without disaster, I got a call from one of the teenagers telling me my best friend (she who had forgotten her passport) had fallen down a flight of stairs and was going to the hospital, that she was mostly okay, talking and moving and all, but possibly with a broken arm or something. I talked to the pony express (my best friend's husband and my favorite motorcycle pal) and he told me she was okay, but we wouldn't know the extent of the injuries for quite a while. He would call in the morning with news. Well, I got an SMS from the kids at 730 this am, and I called David (mr. pony express) and spoke with Vera (best friend and failed superman impersonator on flights of basement stairs). She has a pretty bunged up knee, with no known damage other than soft tissue injuries; a broken head of her left humorous (shoulder), a cracked rib and tons of bruises on her other knee and right arm. Actually, she is damn lucky, or blessed, to be alive. She could easily have broken her neck or back. Needless to say, the trip to Canada was cancelled and they came home. We have been icing her shoulder and knee with, you guessed it, the cryocuffs I got from my two surgeries. How handy is that? She is in a lot of pain, but with appropriate med management and tons of ice cold water filling the cryocuffs, it has abated somewhat.

Bottom line, I am so grateful that I was smart enough to realize my stupidity in taking the bike out into what was obviously going to be wet weather for which I was monumentally unprepared. And, I am eternally grateful that the gods were with Vera while falling down that set of stairs and kept her as safe as they did. Believe, don't believe, but with my medical training I know very few people come out of the kind of fall she had with so few and relatively minor injuries. A broken shoulder will heal, as will her knee and her ribs: a sub-dural hematoma, or a shearing injury in the brain, or a fracture at C4 and everything is a crap shoot, all of which were possible with that mechanism of injury. My advice to my friends and family, cherish those around you: especially those who you see every day and may take for granted. These people (yes, and animals too) are precious and irreplaceable. Remind them and yourself of their value every day.