#3 of 8 things you don't know about me

#3: I have a nine-inch metal plate in my upper left arm.

On a rainy January morning in 2004 I went on a mountain bike ride with our family dog, Molly, galloping by my side. It was my usual fitness ride along Lynn Creek near my home in North Vancouver.

As usual, for a little middle-aged thrill, I rode into a skateboard bowl located along the trail. Except, this time, someone had ditched a shopping cart in the bottom, which I swerved to avoid. But the side of the bowl was coated in frost. My front tire gave way and I flipped, my body crashing into the sloped edge of the bowl.

When I hit, my humerus (which, I learned, is one of the least funny parts of my body) snapped in two like a dry twig and I rolled to the bottom of the bowl.

So, there I was, lying flat on my back in the rain with my arm bent in a most unnatural position behind me, my dog staring down quizzically from the edge of the bowl, and Cheryl Crow blaring into my earbuds, singing "All I wanna do, is have some fun..."

First thing I did was flip the arm over to the front of my body. Boy, did that hurt. But it eased the pain to straighten out the limb and have it resting on my chest.

No one else was on the path that morning, but luckily I had my cell phone. Unluckily, in my trauma-induced confusion I gave the folks at 911 the wrong address for the skateboard park. An ambulance sped around the North Shore for about half an hour looking for me at other parks in the area. Finally, after some back and forth calls to the dispatcher, I was discovered and eventually my arm was screwed back together.

These days I mostly don't notice the metal plate (I think it's titanium, and it's fastened with about nine screws), and, interestingly, neither do the metal detectors at airports. Which makes me wonder what else they don't catch. I retain a long, loud scar, which makes me feel kind of macho, as if I had a past career in extreme sports.

I still go on that fitness ride, but no more skateboard bowls for me.

Comments

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[Angie]

I actually did know this...it is a great story and the scar is very macho.