Oh my god, that's scary.
The only time I crashed on my bike was when I was drunk. And I used to ride my bike while drunk all the time so that's saying something. I was riding on the wrong side of the road and stupidly turned around to see if my friend was behind me, lost balance and crashed into oncoming traffic. I was so drunk that I didn't feel anything, I surprisingly didn't get any injuries, but I passed out and when I came to (still couldn't see) I heard some man over me saying, "Please don't die, this is how my son died" which kind of worried me. Then paramedics arrived and strapped me onto a stretcher, and all I remember was freaking out and saying, "Please don't put handcuffs on my head" because for some reason I thought I was going to the drunk tank, but they were putting a head collar on me. I'm pretty sure that incident should have ended up a lot worse than it really did, but I left the hospital completely fine. And that's actually how my parent's found out I was an alcoholic, because apparently it wasn't the first time those paramedics had picked me up for something stupid so they told me parent's about my history.
But the last road rash I got was from longboarding. I've had it lots from longboarding lol. But the last time was terrifying, I swear I have PTSD from it and I've never gone back to downhill longboarding since, much more cautious now...
I fell and skidded into traffic, and I stood in a daze, without knowing the extent of my injury, but half of my calf muscle was just... gone, and I collapsed. The road rash took literally 3 or 5 inches off of my leg, and it was so gross, it looked pure white at first, no blood, it took a long time for the blood to actually show.
I had to drag myself to the side of the road and the worst part is cars didn't even stop to help me, they just drove around me!
Maybe after an hour or so someone finally stopped but they didn't know first aid. I refused to go to the hospital anyway, because I did know first aid and volunteered at St Johns Ambulance and heard stories of what they do to extreme road rash like that (they literally take a scrubby brush and grate it through your flesh to remove gravel and things stuck in the wound) and that was NOT going to happen. It was so painful I did not touch it for weeks.
I'm surprised my muscle and flesh actually grew back, it was a HUGE chunk missing, but now you can barely even see a scar. The body is quite amazing at healing itself I guess. But that incident definitely traumatized me.
