Rancid

I broke my collarbone on saturday night hitting a pothole. Yes Hawaii has the crappiest roads I have ever seen. Yes my shoulder hurts like holy hell. Yes I got good meds.

Now here are the really bad parts.
1. The navy might try to put me on a medical hold status. It would classify me as limited duty which is a 6 month long period. Essentially that means I would not get out on time, not start school on time and pretty much I would hate my life. I would spend an additional 2 months in my own personal hell.
2. The military hospital here totally f**** up collarbones. Like 6 surgeries, rampant infections, hideous scars, arm not lined up right, F up.
And the big kicker:
3. I'm being held responsible for it by my division officer. Somehow, even though I was sober, was riding with a buddy, had head/rear lights, wore a helmet, was riding on the side of the road and did everything else according to ORM, Its my fault. Especially since my bike doesn't have brakes. He is trying to force me to not ride my fixie.


ugh, more on this later I have to go fill out my accident report.

Terror_in_pink

awww. buddy, i'm sorry.

kathrot

oh, that *sucks*, i'm sorry. navigating **** like that when you're injured is a pain in the ass - hope you heal up and that everything works out.

pitboss

Hey Rancy
Heal fast and well. In the meantime, contact the DAV once your medical status is set. Also check with UCMJ for anything denoting the definition of a bicycle brake and so on and so forth. Check HI laws too. Be prepared for any outcome and get yourself ready to get ETS on schedule. As many ways that they threaten to keep you, there are avenues to ensure the Military stands by their end of your service contract and all related obligations.
Best of luck to my favorite mariner!
J.

dolface

argh, that sucks dude! heal fast.

onetwentyeight 

Rough! I hope it somehow works itself out in your favor

chimblysweep

aw, not cool. like [165] says, time to arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can find to support your case.

hope you heal fast. you'll come back stronger...

pigmode

What a nightmare. I remember when I was short, and had a few bad dreams about something going wrong.

silent1

I've been there done that. I hurt my shoulder while I was short in the USMC. Everything ended up going all right but it was a huge stress and pain in the butt to get out on time. If push comes to shove just request mass and you might be able to work something out where you could get let go and go to school on time.

nateted4

Man, I am so glad I'm out. FTN.

moki

This story reminds me of when I lived in Baghdad, which truly has much crappier roads than Hawaii, and I was riding my beater conversion (stone cold sober, mind you) when a Daisy Cutter detonated just down the street, sending white hot shrapnel and concrete chunks the size of a Yugo right at me. I pulled a hockey stop and tried to hop the curb, but something smashed be in the leg and tore it off above the knee. So I'm lying there, blood spraying out of my femoral artery when I notice that my fork was totally bent. Man, that sucked.

roadfix

You can go AWOL for a little while, no?

Sturmcrow

But you got the fork fixed, yes?

arcellus

i don't know if this is helpful, but i've broken two collarbones (all of em!) and they both healed pretty fast. i was back to riding trails within a month in both cases. that said, they both still hurt when the weather changes quickly. sorry about the hassle, that's lame.

moki

Yeah, I bent it back into shape using my one remaining leg as a lever

hyperRevue

Best story ever told on the forum...

BostonFixed

So, what you're saying is that if you had a brake none of this would have ever happened?

sers

man, you should go chill on the beach until you heal up. i mean god damn, you're in hawaii.

Rancid

due to large amounts of rain flushing raw sewage into the ocean, all beaches in hawaii are closed and some dude died from an infection out here after going for a swim

Rancid

Well according to my command, none of this would have happened if I had a brake. My Div O is a complete ****** and is trying to lawfully order me to not ride a bike anymore because if I continue to injure myself then I am malingering or some bullsh*t. Essentially, this has served as a great reminder of why I need to get the F out of here.

Even though I did everything right and it was just a freak accident in a stitch of bad luck, I apparently have to be punished/ saved from myself. Its also great how not single person in my chain of command seems to be backing me up, and how I have to get letters from people I ride with saying that I am competent on my bike and that quite possibly hawaii roads are more to blame then me.


And I've also got no support from the Hawaii Bicycling League, who I called today in hopes of getting a letter stating the deteriorating conditions and how they might possibly be to blame with the rampant cavernous potholes. However for them to admit that, they would also have to admit that they do nothing to improve riding conditions out here(and of course that won't happen)

So yeah, I'm frustrated to say the least

sers

i mean, don't get me wrong, your situation does suck, but you're enlisted in the military. the navy owns your ass, and they can and will knock your ass into line. fixed gears are under the radar as is, nevermind brakeless. this is probably their way of preempting any similiar forms of "malingering." you should have just sucked it up from the get go, assumed responsibility and let them think that it was a stupid mistake rather than something you actually felt justified doing - they don't want justification, they want you in ship shape should the **** go down, and rightfully so.

offer to put a front brake on it, say money was tight and you tried to fudge without it. whatever it takes to keep you riding. if they don't bite, then just tough it out. enlistment isn't supposed to be pleasant.

ZachS

gonna cross my fingers, knock on wood, and hope everything goes right for you. sorry to hear this happened.

dustinlikewhat

I'm gonna have to agree with this, I mean you signed away your life for 4 years when you signed up, they can tell you what you can and can't do, no matter how messed up that may be.

I mean I have to shower everyday when I go to work, I don't like to, but if I don't I'll get fired, which is nothing compared to being thrown in a military jail. as my dad would say, Suck it up butter-cup. You've got less than a year to go...

Rancid

Thanks for the well wishes and advice- especially from those who have done their time. What a creepy bond we share.

And I do have a front brake on there. I buckled about a month ago and put it on when it was constantly raining out here. And while they do own my life, there is a difference between a lawful and an unlawful order, not too mention overstepping the bounds of authority. He wants me not only off the fixie, but all my bikes now.

Luckily I have a great letter written by my team leader stating the benefits of my cycling (healthier, etc) and also including statistics comparing car injuries/accidents to cycling accidents. My whole team and a few officers I've ridden with on base are also going to write letters to him about how I am a proficient rider who just happened to have 2 freak accidents back to back.
Thanks again for all the support and yeah.....word up.

humancongereel

wow. that sucks ass. i'm sorry that all had to happen to you.