When we were living at BYU, he would ride his bike 7 miles nearly every day to UVU to get to school and then over to work. Even in the dead of winter. (Seriously, I remember he had biked to work and wasn't able to come rescue me when my car broke down on the freeway on what had to have been the coldest day of they year--Thanks again Chad!)
What he has not liked is wearing a helmet. In 5 years of marriage, I have never known him to wear one. Thankfully, there are those rare occasions I didn't know about.
The Young Men are planning an 80 mile bike ride early this summer, so biking has become a frequent weeknight activity for them. This week they headed out on a dirt road west of town. As young men (and their leaders) often like to do, several of them decided to go REALLY FAST.
From what I hear, Jake had taken a pretty good lead and just after he had rounded the bend on a downhill slope, his jacket fell out of the carrying basket and jammed into the breaks on the front tire bringing the front of the bike to an abrupt STOP. Unfortunately, it didn't have the same effect on the back of the bike or its rider. Jake apparently flew over the handle bars, landing face-first on the hard gravel. One of the young men commented that it was the "coolest wreck" he had ever seen.
Unfortunately, "coolest wrecks" often involve more than just a little dusting off to get over...and this one was no exception. One of the rocks that broke his fall decided to take a portion of his front tooth as payment for the service. A handful of others decided to rent some space under the skin of his palms, and a few more decided to do some scratch-off art on his arms.
Jake tells me he could feel himself loosing consciousness shortly after the crash. He said he remembers the feeling of loosing consciousness and not wanting to actually pass out. So he offered a prayer and felt prompted to drink water. As soon as he did so, the sensation of passing out decreased.
Our Bishop (who is also a doctor) was able to take Jake to the hospital and help take care of his wounds. While they were on the way to the hospital, Jake called me on my cell phone but I didn't recognize the number. When I answered, he asked, "Is this Robyn?" (Which is not really something you would expect a husband to ask.) "Yes." Then he said "This is Jake." And my mental response was "Jake who?"
Of course I know who my husband is, but in all honesty, I did not recognize his voice. I'm not sure if that was a result of his dazed state or that his mouth may not have been functioning normally after taking such a banging. In any case, I did eventually figure out who Jake was as he was explaining to me that he had been in a bike wreck and was headed to the hospital.
Thank Heaven for having close family members and friends. I called my mom and she agreed to keep my kids while I went to the hospital. I hadn't even had time to finish packing up the kids before I got a phone call from Sister Lee offering to come over and watch them for me.
Of course it was after regular office hours, so Jake wound up in the ER. When I got there he was covered in bandages and wrapped up in a blanket. I was expecting the bandages....the blanket was a bit weird since Jake almost always feels warmer than I do, and the room felt quite warm to me. Turns out his temperature had dropped to 94 degrees.
Brother Lee (Young Men's President) showed up shortly after I got there. He told us several of the young men had commented that they were impressed Jake hadn't cursed during or after the accident. Way to set the example, Honey.
Thankfully, since Jake was wearing a helmet (supplied by Brother Lee), most of his wounds just needed a good scrubbing--and they evicted the rocks that had take up residence in his hands. After about 3 hours, he was released to head home.
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| Getting scrubbed up |
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| Bandages and numbing medicine |
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| Gonna be okay |
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| All cleaned up and ready to go |
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