My Crash

     Every sport has its dark side. There are many violent injuries involved in sports, especially hockey and football. I have gotten some pretty bad injuries in hockey, but my dirt bike crash in 2010 was probably my worst injury of my life so far. I was not racing that day, I was up in New Hampshire with my dad and some of his friends and my friends. The trails we were riding on were nice dirt trails. They were mostly straight and went for miles. When it was time to take a pretty sharp right turn, it happened. I was going too fast to take the turn, so I decided to slam on the back brake which only made it worse because all it did was made me slide and lose complete control of the bike. I was doing about 40, so my reaction time was very slow.
   
   
When I lost control, I slid off the trail into the woods and bounced off a tree. The worst part was that my leg hit the tree first, then the dirt bike slid with me and crushed my leg up against the tree. I ended up breaking my tibia, which is the shin bone. Thankfully, I didn't hit the tree with my leg any higher up, because if it did, i would have shattered my femur. Also, if I was not leading the group of riders, nobody would have found me in the woods because i would have got left behind, and I sure as heck couldn't walk out of the woods. For the first two minutes after my crash, I was very surprised that I was not in pain. But then I realized I was in shock. My dad and his friends could not find me right away because I was so far in the woods, but when they found me, I was buried in the tree. They had to call an ambulance into the trails to get me because I could not move, and that took so long because we were so far in the woods.
   

     When I finally got to the hospital I had to go under immediate surgery because the bone was basically sticking out of my leg. I ended up having to get two surgeries to get my bone back into place, and 2 pins to hold the bones together. Also, I needed 18 stitches on my other knee because I smashed it off a rock. I had to be in a wheelchair for about 3 weeks before I could walk on crutches. I had the cast on for about 9 weeks, and after that I still had to use the crutches for another month. Thankfully, I am now fully healed. Sometimes I will get minor pain in my knee but not too bad. The second the doctor told me I could ride again I went out for another weekend trip. I am obviously a little more cautious now but even a bad injury is not going to stop me from doing what I love.