It could've happened to anyone...

...but this time it was me.
Yes, I joined the growing number of cyclists involved in accidents with a vehicle. Thankfully I was able to get out of it with serious but not life-threatening injuries.

What happened?
Well, on Thursday morning I went our for an easy 1.5 hour training ride. I was preparing for the Arizona State Championship opener on Saturday so I just need to get a couple power workouts getting off the saddle (jumps) before the race. I chose the Desert Classic trail because the trailhead is less than half mile from my apartment and the trail allows me to keep a regular tempo for the whole hour then do the 3 set of 5 jumps that I needed.
Shortly before 11 am I was done with my training and was heading home. Once I exited the off-road trail I needed to ride on a residential street for less than a mile before getting home. I made a left turn onto Piedmont Road and grabbed my water bottle for the last sip, I put it back on the battle cage and two seconds later I was laying on the ground next to a blue minivan. I got up and all I could see on one of the passenger windows was my face covered in blood. The driver came around and apologized, he said he didn't see me coming down the street when he pulled out of his drive way and onto the road, backing half of the car in front of me. I didn't even have time to react. I couldn't even reach for my breaks or use my arms to protect myself, so I went head first through the last window on the passenger side.

At that point so many thoughts go through your mind, thankfully some neighbors came out and helped me. One person brought me a chair, another one brought an ice pack while another driver offered me to call someone. I gave her Norma's number and eventually was able to get a hold of her. One lady event tried to locate some of my missing teeth noticing that I had broken a couple but she couldn't find them. The driver of the minivan called 911 and a few minutes later a fire truck was the first one to the scene. They put me on a flat board, checked my vitals and put me in an ambulance which had arrived a few minutes later. Throughout the whole things I maintained consciousness and the emergency response crew were very supportive and caring. I was taken to the closest Trauma 1 Emergency Room at Maricopa County Hospital in Phoenix were I was able to experience real-live what goes one at those centers. A guy with a wound shot was on the bed next to mine and people kept coming in and out not without taking a peak at my face. I knew things were bad from the beginning then the Doctor on duty told me that they were bringing someone from plastic surgery to close the wound. Before that, I was taking for a tour to the MRI and CT scan rooms, thankfully those test determined that I didn't have any head or neck injuries.

At 12:30 PM and after several doses of morphine and local anesthesia, two plastic surgeons initiated the process to stitch my right chick muscles as well as my lips together. I also required several stitches to my nose and tongue. There was even a piece of tongue that couldn't be saved so they had to cut it. At 3:30 PM after more than three hours of stitching work, they were done with my face. A short walk to the bathroom helped us find a bump on my right knee but it turned out to be just a painful bruise.
After the hospital we headed straight to the dentist office. Just a quick stop by the house to get some recovery drink in my body and change clothes (actually put some on since all I had was spandex shorts and a t-shirt). At Dr. Wang's office we successfully scared off everyone that saw my face. Even the Doctor was hesitant to look for the damage to my teeth. Preliminarily I have one completely broken front tooth and half of the other one on my top jaw. There seems to be some missing pieces on some other ones from the side but we won't know until the swelling goes down.

Lastly we headed to Target to fill my pain and antibiotics prescription. By then it was 6:00 PM and the effect of the anesthesia had worn off, so the half our wait while the pharmacy filled them was probably the most painful time probably in my life.
Last night I slept on and off and the swelling increased. This morning I was finally able to get some liquids in (besides water) however all my meals have to be blended. I got away with drinking lukewarm coffee through at straw thanks to my lovely Norma, who is been by my side every moment. I couldn't have done it without her.

I also took some pictures but I'll wait a few more days to post them.

Thanks to all of you that have kept us in your thoughts and prayers.
We are doing fine and hoping for a speedy recovery.

I am pretty sure I won't be racing on Saturday, but the Arizona Mountain Bike Association was kind enough to move my paid registration to the next race.

That's all for now. We have an appointment on Tuesday to have the stitches removed and follow up. I also have to assess any possible damage to the bike. So far it looks good, but we'll take it to the bike shop for a complete check.

Have a great day,

Jeff and Norma