jeffwongdesign

Tag Archives: crash

Getting Back on my Bike

/ Me, Photo

DSC_8062

Photo of my electric bike in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It’s been only a month since my crash and it still feels like yesterday. The strange feeling of my newly crowned teeth, the sensitive parts of my face and the mild pain in my shoulder are constant reminders of the potential danger of riding bikes around San Francisco. For the most part, I’ve told everyone that I’ve fully recovered, but these ailments haunt me. My wreck was a wake up call—to put safety first, and minimize the chance of getting hurt.

While there is danger in riding, I think there is inherent risk in everything we do… including driving our cars, crossing the street, and playing sports. The lesson I’ve learned is that I should have taken extra safety precautions—if I had a full-face helmet, there’s a good chance I would never have gotten a concussion, multiple stitches, had to go to the dentist multiple times, etc. I’m not saying that a full-face helmet would save me from everything, but a little extra protection would have probably gone a long way.

I want to be clear that I was wearing a helmet, had all my lights on, gloves, and clothing that covered all my body. The one place that wasn’t protected was my face. More on that in a moment…

DSC_8054

Black and white photo of the Golden Gate Bridge and its reflection at Presidio an hour before the sunset.

There are still so many places in San Francisco I want to explore. And there’s really no better way to do that than on a bike. The convenience of riding to work is also amazing, not to mention all the health benefits. I also really like the idea of minimizing my carbon footprint. When I combine these reasons I realize that biking still makes sense in my life.

DSC_8058

Photo of my bike at Presidio.

The photo above is something I shot after work on Friday. I decided to take a ride and watch the sunset from one of my favorite vantage points, Hawk Hill. On my way there, I snapped this picture, and I was reminded of how beautiful this place is.

DSC_8073

Photo of my bike and helmet with the Golden Gate bridge and San Francisco in the background.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve upgraded my helmet. This is a full-face model designed for extreme down hill mountain biking. After doing researching and consulting with my comrades, this seemed to be the best choice. I was seriously considering a motorcycle helmet, but there’s a camp of riders that believe that motorcycle helmets can potentially obstruct visibility and sound—which could ironically be more dangerous. The helmet I purchased (Bell Super 3R) is pretty legit, and has new technology to prevent concussions and minimize head trauma.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again… but if it does, I’m more prepared.

DSC_8085

Photo of Marin County, towards Rodeo Lagoon as the sun touched down on the horizon.

This was probably my favorite photo of the evening. If I had more daylight, I think I would have ridden further… but I’m saving that for next time. This was truly a majestic view, and the only way to preserve that moment in a bottle was with a pic.

DSC_8066

Close-up of my new helmet. It includes a new technology called MIPS to reduce rotational head trauma.

My new helmet also has a built in Go Pro mount. I’ll be investing into one of those soon. The really crazy thing about my accident is that I don’t remember what happened. If I had at that time Go Pro, I could have examined the incident frame by frame.

DSC_8079

Photo of my bike in one of the historic artillery bunkers.

DSC_8095

A quick photo while crossing the Golden Gate bridge on my way back home.

I’ll have more photos share with you guys soon. And I promise that I will be as safe as I can when I’m riding.

Cycling Accident

/ Me

It seems that recently I’ve gone through a streak of high stress (and possibly bad luck). I’ve gone through a thyroid ablation procedure, I was in a car accident in Los Angeles (as a passenger), I had to shut down a company I worked on, and most recently I experienced a bicycling accident. I’m not feeling down, but at the same time, my spirits aren’t the highest. It feels like tough times, and it’s going to take some focus to get through it all.

As some of you may know, I got in to a bike accident yesterday morning around 9AM. It all happened when I was heading to the hospital to get my blood work done as a follow up to my thyroid ablation. Ironic, right?

I was on the phone with Annie, and the next thing I knew I was in an ambulance. I literally was riding, and then I woke up inside an ambulance. I can’t remember what happened exactly, but I think my bike slipped or got caught on one of the railings in the road. To give you a little more context, it was raining lightly and the road was slippery. However, I can’t rule out that I could have been hit by a car.

Whatever happened, I had a memory loss and I was unconscious for about 20-30 minutes. I’m still trying to piece it all together.

So, what were the results of my accident? Well, I suffered a moderate concussion, messed up my teeth, got a black eye (which is swollen shut), and busted up my lip. In short, it looks like I got into a fight and lost big time. I also have some small abrasions and bruises on my body, but nothing substantial.

The good news is that most of the damage is superficial, and in time it’ll all get fixed. The key word to recovery is “time”. My head aches, my body is sore, but I’m able to walk around. I’ve spent most of my time resting and messaging friends/family about my status.

So let’s rewind to the moment when I crashed–Annie was on the phone with me. According to her, she heard me say “whoaaaa”, and then the phone was silent. She was freaking out and kept asking me if I was okay. She assumed that I had crashed, and then about a minute later, she heard people talking to me. She yelled to get people’s attention, but no-one could hear her over my headpiece. She hung up, and then called back constantly to see if she could get someone’s attention. Apparently a pedestrian or driver saw me on the side of the road and called 911. It wasn’t until about an hour later that Annie got a phone call from the hospital.

I can’t imagine the terror I must have put Annie through.

All I remember was riding my bike and then I woke up in an ambulance with a massive headache. The paramedics were cutting off my clothing as I opened my eyes. I asked the paramedics if I was dreaming, and they said, “No sir, you are not dreaming. You were in a bike accident and we’re taking you to the hospital. You’re hurt, and you have a chipped tooth. Your bike will be stored at a fire station”. I blacked out several times, so my recollection of the entire experience is extremely fragmented. When I was in the ambulance, the main thing I remember was telling myself that it was all a bad dream and I was going to wake up later.

Nope. It wasn’t a dream. The really scary thing about this whole experience is that I can’t remember what happened at the moment of the crash.

When I was in the emergency room, I kept asking everyone their name. I wanted to test myself and see if I could retain some information, but I kept forgetting everyone’s name… and that’s when I knew something was wrong. It was hard to focus, and I was extremely disoriented.

Fortunately, one of the nurses and social workers found my phone and was able to help me make some phone calls. They saw that Annie called a hundred times. Finally I was able to speak to her and told her exactly what happened. I told her to call my parents, Vinny and Hooman.

Finally, the nurse gave me my phone and I took a picture of myself. When I saw my face, I realized that I was really beat up and my situation was serious. Everything crystalized at that moment, and this was now my reality. It wasn’t a dream.

Since then, I’ve taken several photos to document my recovery. I’ll post the photos later when I’ve recovered. I don’t want to freak everyone out right now, because they look pretty bad. I’m not going to lie, my face is wrecked right now and it’s going to take a couple weeks to recover.

Side note: When I got my phone, the first thing I did was turn down the brightness, turned off bluetooth, and tried to conserve as much battery life as possible. I knew that my phone was going to be a critical tool to contact everyone.

Hooman and Aram came by later that evening to check on me. They were nice enough to pick up a little food and some liquids. It was good to see some familiar faces, and they were really supportive. Also, I was able to talk to Vinny and his parents. As you know, Vinny’s parents are doctors, and they gave me some more context about the entire situation. They saw my pictures and accessed the situation. Pretty much they said that I was not in any danger and it’ll take some time to recover. They reassured me that any injuries were cosmetic and could be fixed.

I ended up staying at the hospital a little later than expected because my blood work revealed that I had low phosphorus levels. Most likely, it’s related to my thyroid issues, so I’m going to follow up with my endocrinologist. Patrick ended up picking me up and helping me get my medication from a 24 hour Walgreens.

So, now here I am, in my bed, blogging. My head is woozy, and I can only see out of one eye. Hopefully you guys can make some sense out of all these fractured thoughts. Annie will be here tomorrow morning. Hopefully I can get my bike back soon, and set up some time with a dentist.