glad you're ok overall!!
boy, I would take it slow and easy (and low impact) until you're sure there are no subtle lingering issues
heal up first...10 weeks is a good long time to get back into things

Glad to hear that you're not hurt. Keep the road rash nice and clean and buy the biggest tube of Neosporin that you can find. Also, put sunscreen on any exposed road rash to keep it from scarring. And get some "crash sheets" that you'll use every time that you crash for about a week, since you'll be leaky all night. :D It sounds like you probably just have some nice road rash, which you can definitely train through. It'll hurt the first few miles every time that you go out and ride, but once you're warmed up, it's not so bad at all. Good luck, and keep the rubber side down!

see if you can get his insurance to pay for the new wheel. glad you're still in one piece (although very banged up) ease back into training and listen to your body.

I'd also talk to a lawyer about any damage to your bike, medical bills, missed races, etc. Don't post anything else about the accident here until the legal side is settled. And, have a shop give your bike a thorough inspection.

Take as long as you need to recuperate -- you may have to skip a few swims until the road rash closes up.

Sounds like you got very lucky. Hope all goes well in FLA.

Thanks for the input and support. I have requested a copy of the police report, so I'll have some more info shortly.

I really don't know what happened to the bike when I hit. All I know is that I was detached from it when I came to on the street. Besides, my friend Eric stated he ran over it. I've only done a visual inspection and it looks ok, structurally. I was thinking about maybe riding it around my house tonight to see if i hear or feel anything.

I need a new helmet, mine cracked in 3 spots upon impact on something, possibly the ground.

This accident it like a shot of instant depression, I'm bummed out. I was planning on doing a race this weekend and not I don't know...

Bike Sport Michigan has a good article on treating road rash, if you need any more advice on that. Hope you are able to get back on your training plan intime for the IM.
http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/features/roadrash.shtml

1) HEAD INJURY!!
Hey! Speaking of structural damage, you've had a head injury! - a concussion, AND you lost consciousness. (BTW you don't have to lose consciousness to have a concussion). Be very careful...I hit a (parked!) car a week ago, bang on head - helmet looks fine, but I was a bit stunned and had no symptoms the first night. 24hrs later had fatigue, irritability, difficulty falling asleep, slept poorly; following day: pressure in my head and headache, difficulty concentrating and remembering words, and a host of other very subtle symptoms that I had really done some damage to my brain. The symptoms do not always come on immediately - may take a week to develop. A week later I still have a mild headache, and word-blocks.

Here is a site http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/tbi that can give you more info and an evaluation sheet - do a daily score. See a doctor if you have any worsening symptoms. Note that you are now at risk if you have any more hits to the head from any source!!

I agree with Tri-Ac. Take it easy! If you have any symptoms at all, take 2-3 days COMPLETE REST; (better yet, a week!). [Most emerg physicians will recommend 6 weeks off from exercise that gets your blood pressure climbing.] You won't lose any fitness in that time, and you'll do your brain a favour. Don't do any running on hard surfaces - includes indoor treadmills - and bike on smooth surfaces, very safe roads (better yet on a trainer) where your head doesn't get jogged about. Take it easy; pull back on exertion if any symptoms develop. If you persist through symptoms you run the risk of developing post-concussion syndrome.

Roadrash treatment: may take 10-14 days to heal over, if not infected. DID YOU GET A TETANUS SHOT? Have you had one in the past 10yrs? If you don't know get one anyway - no harm will happen, unless you have contraindications to the vaccine.

2) ROADRASH:

FYI (or my vanity!) here are my notes on treating myself last year. [Am I the only klutz in this sport - I have had 7 "accidents" in 18months!)???*&@?]
I was training for an olympic triathlon when I got this so had to stop swimming the twice/week that I was doing, but was able to continue running and biking. I searched all over the net for info, and these were the 2 best sites I found. Arnie is an MD, so I thought he might be a good bet!

http://www.freewheel.com/mvw/cure.htm
http://www.arniebakercycling.com/search.htm Type in "Road rash - abrasion"
teamintraining.org/chapter/national/doc/roadrashabc.pdf

The worst part of my rash was on my hip - deep linear gouges and loss of a lot of skin layers (probably almost like a 3rd degree burn). My upper arm (like a 2nd degree burn) shoulder (1st degree) and elbow (deep gash) were all affected too. I sped home and cold-showered for about an hour, rubbing off all I of the debris I could (mostly fine sand and grit) while it was still fairly numb from the shock and then hubby told me I should go to emerge, where they spent about another hour or more scrubbing with nylon surgical scrub brushes after putting on some anaesthetic gel. This is supposedly to stop tattooing. It hurt but I can tolerate a lot of pain - I suffered most of 4 complicated childbirths with no analgesia....By comparison, I was taking Tylenol #3 to sleep and survive the next 36h - and be able to move.

I bought some Duoderm, second skin, Adaptic and Opsite from Healthcare and Rehab and other specialty stores and followed the advice on these 2 sites. The important thing is to make sure the whole area and about 1-2cm of normal skin is surrounded by the dressing. It will probably leak, but gauzes over the top of that (kept in place by a netting sleeve) will help soak up some of the fluid, so changing dressings is diminished somewhat.

For the first 5 -7 days I was trying to not change the dressing too often (I did it q24h for the very oozy sites and q48-72h for the others) since most references said to leave it on for a week or more (Pee-ew!) but found it difficult to contain the oozing, so I would advocate lifting a corner of the dressing and letting fluid drain out and replacing the gauzes. i was trying not to change the dressings because I couldn't find a good source of them; plus they weren't cheap. But then I found a source of Tegaderm and I would recommend it as the best and easiest to apply, and it comes in different thicknesses. The other thing is I think it is important to check what's going on underneath. My arm swelled 6 days later (started cipro) probably related to the tetanus shot which I'd had to have in the same arm as the rash. A folliculitis manifested itself later which made the healing harder - how to get a dressing to stick without aggravating the skin.

The rash got a hard yellowish-brown crust on it in the last few days of healing (days 7, 8). I wasn't sure what to do about it - but eventually with showering, it either flaked or peeled off and there was new very pink and very flakey skin underneath. As the hip took longer to heal, and after I had discovered that the hard crust on my arm could be removed with no further bleeding, I started showering and rubbing the hip site clean each day...I think this helped speed the process in the last few days. Amazingly all the deep linear gouges filled in and there was no scarring from them.

Interestingly, my upper arm where my T shirt sleeve didn't cover the skin became very pigmented. I initially attributed this to not using sunscreen or being assiduous in covering a very sun-sensitive new skin, but the same happened on my hip once it was healed. It was always covered and I did use sunscreen on it, so the process is not sun-related. Perhaps it was a matter of which layers of skin were scraped off. I also wondered, as it developed and got darker, if this is the "tattooing" they were trying to prevent! and that all their scrubbing had actually made it worse, because there wasn't a lot of grit to remove by the time I had finished showering.

Timing:
Roadrash day = June 25th
By June 27 I was able to bike again; took 1-2 hours to dress wounds.
Arm mostly healed by July 3rd (except for crusting on upper arm). Thigh still oozing; itchy and about 2" x 2" left to heal (of 5" x 5")
Hip by July 8/9th (just in time to be able to swim the ITU triathlon!)

Be very careful with head injuries!!!. When I wrecked, the first thing the paramedic asked was if I lost contiousness. I didn't, but if I did, he was ready to to call the helicopter....NO KIDDING!

Read October's Bicycle magazine on Saul Raisin and his crash and serious brain trauma....it's scary.

Glad you're okay but be careful and look for strange signs from your body.

apons

Well the biking bad news continues. I just came across this story in FL. Maybe it's time for some of the bike companies to pool some money together and get some PSA on the airwaves...

There is a news video link on the story. Wow, you should see the side of the SUV, it looks like another car hit it but actually it was all of these bikers hitting the side of the SUV.

Several bicyclists are injured after colliding with a vehicle.

According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the bike riding club had a total of 40 members and were riding around a golf course located at 142 Avenue Southwest and 62 street, when a car pulled right in-front of them and struck them. The group of riders were unable to stop.

A total of 12 bicyclist were injured and were treated on the scene.

One bicyclist was air lifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical conditions, the others were transported to near by hospitals.

Link to story

So How's the healing going, triNick? Are things looking up?