Five days ago I rode my bike in Seattle with a friend. We live on Capitol Hill and were headed to the Burke Gilman trail via Montlake. We were riding down 23rd, where there a lot of potholes, and I made a hand signal with my left hand to turn right at Boyer. I fell off my bike and landed on my left arm and bumped my right side along the street. Luckily my friend was able to stop her bike and help me out of the street before we were hit by any cars behind us. Note that this is the same intersection where the runner was killed about a year ago, having been hit by a car.

I'm also lucky to have not had a head injury. I did fracture my left dominant distal radius, which was displaced completely from where it normally lives. If I had my wits about me, we would've gone to the ER at Swedish. My friend's husband rushed to the scene in less than five minutes and loaded me and the bike into the car. I asked to go to Northwest instead, which didn't make sense, though it seems rational having just been there weeks earlier for my son's x-rays for his own broken arm.

In the ER at Northwest, they cleaned up some road rash, including a silver dollar sized hole on my right hip. For this relatively minor injury, they used a derma bond to help it heal more comfortably. I'm still avoiding contact with clothing that was an interesting way to combine a glue/stitch type process with a natural bandage.

I was very lucky to have surgery soon after the x-rays. They reconstructed my wrist, using 7 pins, five screws and a Y. shaped plate. I was able to go home that evening and have been very well attended by my husband, three children and wonderful community on Capitol Hill and our school. I feel lucky, lucky, lucky.

I have used a wonderful voice recognition software called Dragon 10 to write this story. It is perfect for anyone who has lost use of an arm or who just wants to save some energy.