What you can learn from a broken bone

What you can learn from a broken bone?

I’ve recently crash landed from my bike breaking my left clavicle. It’s still fixing itself and I’m in plaster. So I have a lot of time to think. Unfortunately writing doesn’t come as easy as that. I wondered for days if it taught me anything.

Leave a margin for an error

I didn’t and that’s why I crashed. I was speeding downhill. I was locked in my SPD shoes, I had a bus coming after me. I’m so fucking lucky that it was only a clavicle that I broke.

Even if everything goes fine and you’re happy living your life it can change in a fraction of time. So leave a buffer here and there to make the fall safe.

SPD shoes are great for races but you shouldn’t use them in the city. I had too many problems because of them. I’m switching back to regular pedals.

Wear a fucking helmet

I don’t care if you look stupid, feel hot or whatever. Your life may end up in a second if you don’t have it in this right second. Just wear the damn thing. 

Of course you’re better than me and you’ll never crash. I thought so too. That’s a known psychological flaw we all human have - attribution error (in short everyone thinks he’s better than others). Great that my wife forced me to wear it each time until it became a habit :-)

You can bounce of from anything

Unless you die you can survive a lot of pain. And usually the pain you imagine is worst that the actual one. The idea of breaking a bone scared me so much. Now I know it’s not that bad, our body is great at recovering. It can heal quickly.

Eating well is very important

I eat really healthy and that helps me recover. The food you put into your body not only nourishes you but affects your mood, stress response, healing, satisfaction, sex drive and a lot more.

By eating good stuff you’re more prepared for anything that can happen to you.

Polish healthcare is so fucked up

A guy with a broken bone has no chance to see orthopedist in a reasonable time (you should go and verify bone alignment after a few days from the accident) unless he pays and goes to a private practitioner or spends half a day in queue waiting to be exceptionally admitted.

I always knew that it’s bad with public healthcare here but didn’t expect it to be so bad. The whole system is unbelievably broken.

Polish national healthcare insurance

The mandatory government insurance provider will bring out any mistake you made before giving you money - I’ve missed one payment in 2012/09 and now I’m summoned to explain myself and write an official statement which I already did 6 months ago, but seems they’ve missed that.

Awesome!