Dogged in Kentucky

First off I guess I have to fess up about the last entry. I didn't visit the distillery, tasting room nor my old Kentucky home. That was just to get you interested in seeing the video of those places. Of course when you expected to see houses and distillers you got to see me horsing around. And, no I wasn't three-sheets-in-the-wind when I did it, as was thought by my sister, Sandra. Sober and hangoverless, I left Bardstown Sunday morning. Sunday was a beautiful clear day. The road from Bardstown to Lexington was somewhat rough with no shoulders, but from Lexington to Danville was smooth with a wide shoulder. I left early as usual and planned on stopping in Danville and visiting the bike shop the next day. I was about 13 miles from Danville when fate stepped in again. I was rolling on a slight down hill when I looked to my left and saw two huge dogs running toward the road. My speed was somewhere between 15 and 20 mph and at first I thought I'd out run them. But then they angled to cut me off. I had two cans of pepper spray in my left front pannier but couldn't reach them. I should have stopped right then but didn't and kept thinking they would pull up and stop. They didn't. They were big dogs with heads like Rottweilers but they had stocky bodies of a much larger dog. They looked like small horses running toward me. One came to the front and one went to the rear. I am not sure which one hit me first, but the next thing I knew I was headed one way and my bike was headed the other. I often wondered what would happen if I fell. I always thought in a fall I'd probably break a leg due to the shoe clips but was pleasantly surprised when I hit the ground sans bike. I hit my right palm first, then my head, left arm/shoulder and finally the left side of my back. I laid on my right side after the impact and rested for a moment thinking ...well, that wasn't so bad. I was relived when the dogs went back to the other side of the road and didn't attack me. If they had I couldn't have defended myself. After a short while, I started checking body parts to see if they worked. Arms OK, shoulders OK, legs OK. Now knowing I wasn't paralyzed, I tried to sit up. An intense hot pain shot through my body, the worst pain I have ever felt. I knew then something was broken. After about ten cars passed finally a concern lady stopped and asked me if I needed help. At first I told her no that I'd be alright. Another car stopped and the women in it was a nurse. She convinced me that I needed an ambulance and a doctor. By this time about five cars had stopped and one was an off duty fireman. When the ambulance came they had to roll me over onto the stretcher. Ouch. Again at the hospital I was moved from table to table. Ouch, ouch and ouch! I was moaning and groaning so loud that the doctor said to hit me with morphine. I got two hits of morphine and another shot of something else. Only then did the pain subside. After the xrays, which exposed three broken ribs, they gave me another shot just for good measure. I was at the hospital, my bike was at the fire station 13 miles from Danville and my little buddy was with the sheriff. Once I knew I had broken ribs, I knew I'd need some time to recover. I called my sister, Sandra and she dropped what she was doing and headed in my direction. It took six hours to reach Danville. So when the doc released me the sheriff came and picked me up and drove 13 miles to get my bike. He had my buddy with him and then took me to the pharmacy to get my pain scrip filled. With all my gear (I thought) he then dropped me off at Hampton Inn to await my sister's arrival.
I arrived at Hampton Inn around two and Sandra arrived around eight. Since it was about a six hour drive and the room was paid for we decided to stay the night. Yesterday, we left early and made the drive to Christenberg, Va. but we had to stop a couple times for me to adjust my body. I thought I could go without pain meds but was severely reminded that I need it. Little can be done with broken ribs other than time. My breathing is labored and turning my upper body is like sticking a knife into my back. When I got to Sandra's house I got my dirty clothes out to wash and checked my panniers for my worldly possessions. The only thing that was missing was my camera. I downloaded all my pictures to a two-gig mini drive and that was in my camera case. Lost, all lost. Today I had to sneeze and the pain was immobilizing and Sandra had to take me to their family doctor. They took another xray and it appears I have four broken ribs and some water build up in my lungs. I got two more shots for pain and another more potent scrip and believe you me I'll take them. I am not sure how long my recovery will take. The doc in Danville said six weeks and the doc here said about eight weeks. I hope it's not that long. I'll rest here in Virginia until I can travel and then go home to recover fully. Theresa will come Friday or Saturday and I'll probably leave for the island shortly thereafter. Thank you all for following along with me and giving me your support. I'll go back to weekly entries until I can get back on the road. Doggone it.