Welcome to the Capshaw Family!

Yesterday afternoon Lori began her initiation into the Capshaw family. Over the last few years my dad and brother have established a tradition of crashing their bikes to get attention (that's the best reason I can come up with). And, if you want lots of attention, of course the crash has to be bad enough for a hospital visit (at least), and surgery if possible.

We were out for a mountain bike ride to the top of Mt. Tam, enjoying the sunny day. After riding to the top and almost all of the way back down, Lori took a dive into the fire road. We were going, oh, maybe 15 mph on a gently down-sloping, smooth but loose, fire road about .5 miles from our house. Rounding a corner, there was a couple hiking up the hill and Lori adjusted her front wheel slightly while breaking to give them some extra room. Her front wheel slid out as she leaned into the right hand turn and down she went! She hit her right shoulder and hip first, but also hit her head pretty hard.

I was behind her and stopped to see how she was. She said her head hurt. Uh oh. Her helmet was cracked in two places. Uh oh. But, she didn't black out. Whew! I un-clipped her left foot, pulled the bike off her, and we assessed the damage. Her head hurt a little, she was a bit dizzy, but coming around quickly, her nagging back pain over the last few weeks seemed cured, her shoulder didn't hurt, and she had trail rash on her hip. After deciding there were no major injuries, she sat up and we sat for a few minutes gathering ourselves for the trip home. When Lori stood up, we realized that the trail rash was pretty bad -- she was bleeding quite a bit.

At home, we assessed the damage to her leg and decided she would need some expert medical attention. We ended up going to the Marin General Hospital Emergency Room. During the interview/assessment process they tested Lori's neck. She passed all the tests but one - leaving the door open for a broken neck. We had gone in looking for a little bit of expert contusion-cleaning, and the next thing we knew she was in a neck brace waiting for a cat scan! All along I had been thinking that she was taking the easy way out of this Capshaw rite of passage with a simple bit of rocks-under-the-skin trail rash. Oh no, she wasn't. She had a broken neck!!!

Well actually, I didn't think so, but the only people that seem to think they are more right than I think I'm right are ER doctors. Anyway, she had her brace on and went off for her cat scan. After another 45 minutes of waiting, it turned out I was right (of course) and she didn't have a broken neck.

After that crisis was averted, they could focus on cleaning her wounds. That all went fine and she was discharged. Last night and this morning she was sore, but it looks like she will recover quickly. So, she had punched the "crash-your-bike" ticket as a Capshaw, and managed to avoid surgery and a broken neck. What a catch she is! :-)