Pain, Pandemic, and Pace: A Letter to the Fellow Injured
Dear Injured, You have been asked these questions before. What would you do if, during the early peaks of the Corona Virus pandemic, you fell off your bicycle face down and broke numerous bones in your body, received several stitches, and tore the two mandibular discs in your jaw? What would you say if, despite all the blood that painted the pavement, you woke up in the hospital surrounded by a professional team of doctors and nurses, all unmasked? How would you feel over the following year with the associated follow-up hospital visits, procedures, recommended surgeries? Exhausted? Wouldn't it be easy to stay home and pop those refillable potent opioid painkillers? Would any amount of robust IP beer help alleviate the bruised emotions? What if you were an ultramarathon runner who took bicycling as a cross-sport halfheartedly? What if you were not even riding your racing bicycle at the time of that accident and just an older slow mountain bike to cruise in the neighborhood with ...
