Has racing skewed your view of "injury"?

I guess it never really occurred to me until yesterday that what we see as a major injury isn't the same definition as other people.

A pre-teen girl fell off one of those waveboard/skateboard things yesterday and one of the neighbors called 911. An ambulance, a firetruck and one of those fire dept. pickups were dispatched for what amounted to a broken collarbone and some stitches.

Obviously, she needed to go to the hospital, but 911 for a skateboard fall?

I remember going to work the weekend after my concussion and people were flabbergasted that I was on my feet. I thought they were the weird ones then, and now... Or is it just me?

 

Yes, you are weird.

 

My momma says you're weird, Colonel Sanders...

 

Paramedics and an ambulance ride for a broken collar bone sounds about right. The firetruck and pickup truck were probably overkill, but it may have been a slow day at the station and they just wanted to get out.

 

Even money says the parents gripe when they get the bill for the ambulance.

 

A week or two ago an acquaintance had a street riding accident and broke his clavicle. Everybody was saying, "oh no, how horrible." I got the stink-eye when I responded, "Eh, that's usually the first bone to bust in a good off. Glad to hear he's okay."

 

You have to admit you hung that curveball right in the zone.

 

I got a concussion after my get off at VIR a few years ago on a Saturday. Hospital checked me out and sent me on my way after a few hours, went home on Sunday (wife drove), and was back at work on Monday. Still felt like shit and when a coworker asked what was up, they were like "WTF are you doing here?!?!"

 

I usually do throw one or two out there as bait.

 

I think you are correct. My brother in law had a pretty bad get off on a quad, broke some ribs and an arm and knocked him out. The whole family with the exception of my bunch was freaking out, will never forget the conversation between my wife and her mom. Mom is listing everything wrong with him and when she finishes my wife says "that's it? He'll be fine".

 

I f@cked up both my feet on tuesday or wednesday of last week and the obvious plan would be to try and stay off them for a few days at least. What I do? Continued to walk on them, flew 6 or 8 times and just cranked down and did what I needed to do. I'm sure I did long term damage but being stupid, I was proud of "walking it off."

Gawd damn, we're a stupid bunch.

 

Same here. I keep my hair pretty short on the sides, and I had a bruise - like black and blue, that went from just above my left eye around the side of my head, past my ear, and I was still having a bit of dizziness occasionally. It looked a little like I'd been slapped with a belt or leather strap. I probably shouldn't have been at work on Monday.

I'll never forget my ex- driving the Funmover home from Pittsburgh on Sunday while I was in the back throwing up about every 10 minutes from the dizziness and headaches.

 

I think it's a personality thing which is why maybe for us normal medical issues are not that serious. In 2013 I broke my collar bone in a crash and I still loaded up my bikes and gear and drove myself to the hospital and later drove myself home. The medic at the track thought I was crazy and I had to sign a waiver and stuff. But there was no way I was going to pay for an ambulance unless I was knocked out.

 

Snowflakes

 

My view still the same. But after the first medical bills come in you stop calling the ambulance and just deal with it differently.

In racing we tend to get i jured quite often, and if everytime we went to the hospital we all would be broke.

People that get injuried once in their life don't have to worry that much.

 

i have this problem. i got hit by a car on my motorbike and still went to work that day. i crashed my bicycle and separated my shoulder, walked home 7 miles then tried to sleep it off before driving myself to the hospital the next morning after rolling over on it and almost throwing up in my bed. ride my bike with casts on from breaking my wrist from crashing my bike... go to a party a few hours after breaking my wrist and ribs...

can't tell if actually retarded, or not that big of a deal anymore.

 

I personally don't think it has anything to do with racing, rather the type of personality that most of us on here possess . Let's face it, if we're into road racing then we had a pretty adventurous personality before we found this sport. Do a mental list of things you did before you got involved in racing: I was a platform diver and pole vaulter in high school. I've played hockey for 40 years. It's quite obvious that I'm searching for a level of adrenaline that most normal people avoid. And with this level of thrill seeking comes an inordinate amount of injury to where what might send most people to the emergency room becomes a "spit on it and rub it and you'll be fine" to us.

To quote Harry Dean Stanton, “Look at those assholes over there. Ordinary fucking people. I hate 'em”

 

My boy found a table with his forehead the other day and needed stitches, I told the wife if I got to the hospital and the wound wasnt on his face we were going home and getting out the butterfly bandages. The world is weak these days.

 

Fire and EMS are usually dispatched together every time a 911 call is placed. The police were probably dispatched to the skateboarder because there was an injury to a minor, and they want to make sure it the harm wasn't done by anyone other than the skateboarder.