By doug_wertman

The weather has been nice this week, and that’s why I felt it was time to throw out my annual motorcycle safety lesson.  We see a lot more motorcycle accidents this time of the year because seasonal riders are pulling their bikes out of storage, motorcycle dealerships are running promotions to entice new riders, and everyone is hitting the road.

Whether you’re a new or experienced rider it’s even more important to pay attention to the other drivers on the road right now.  In the last 2 weeks I’ve already heard of 4 different motorcycle riders killed or injured in our area because they collided with cars that pulled out in front of them.  You must remember to pay more attention to the car than the car is paying to you! Many drivers don’t look twice, may feel they are superior to motorcycles, or may just be a bit slack this time of the year because they haven’t had to be as cautious watching for motorcycles in the colder months.

When riding always treat each car as if the driver cannot see you.  One of the most important rules of safety is taking the steps to keep yourself and other drivers safe.

If you’re a new rider or you’re thinking about buying your first motorcycle please please please take a motorcycle safety course before you get on the road.  At the very least spend check out the Learn To Ride A Motorcycle ebook.

The book will teach you valuable information starting from the very beginning phase of getting a permit, how to choose the right bike, choosing safety gear, and all the way up to proper riding techniques.  The book also recommends taking an MSF course, and I truly believe this is one of the best ways to learn proper riding safety.

Yes I totally disappeared, and yes it’s because I did end up as a long term (9 day) resident at the hospital when I told you I was going to the ER to be monitored for a few hours.  Thursday I checked in to be monitored around 7pm.  It didn’t take long for the nurses to realize I was going to be there awhile.  The doctor arrived around 10pm and let me know I”d be staying until Saturday morning so they could run a 24 hour urine test on me. 

The next day things started looking even worse.  After being on bed rest all night and morning my bp was only getting worse.  I was started on magnesium sulfate to keep me from convulsing and/or going into a coma, and I was being given labatelol by iv every so often, but it wasn’t helping.  My bp was dangerously high, so I was sent for an ultrasound at 10am to make sure the baby seemed to be developed enough for delivery.  Within a couple hours the doctor was in my room explaining why he had to induce me immediately, and at 6pm they started the pitocin.  Anyone who knows me knows my birth plan said absolutely no pitocin unless absolutely necessary, and in this case it was.  It came down to delivering her or seriously harming both of us.  Honestly everything was so far off of my birth plan that it never came out of my bag.

I labored all night, and by noon the next day I still hadn’t dilated beyond 3 1/2cm, so the decision was made that I needed an emergency c-section.  I would have refused if the situation had been normal, but my bp was well beyond 200/115 at that point.

At 12:11pm Elliana was born.  She gave 2 little cries before quietly surveying what was going on around her.  They held up this teeny tiny little thing in front of my face, and I cried at how small she was.  She weighed in at 4lbs 5oz and measured 17 1/2 inches long.  She showed up 5 weeks early, but other than being small she is 100% perfectly healthy!  She was given the normal amount of oxygen the hospital gives to any baby delivered by c-section, but she didn’t need any “extra”.  Her apgar score at birth was an 8, and at 5 minutes was a 9!  She does have a sacral dimple, but it’s being checked.

Unfortunately her delivery didn’t solve all our problems.  Even though she was perfectly healthy I wasn’t.  My bp didn’t return to normal after delivery like it normally does with preeclampsia.  Instead I ended up in the hospital until October 31st while the team of doctors tried to control my bp.  I also ended up losing a lot of blood, so I was given a transfusion and pumped full of potassium.  I was finally released after my bp came down enough that I was out of the danger zone for seizures, but I’m still hypertensive. 

Needless to say it’s definitely be wild around here lately, and I’m just really happy to be home.  But hey…now I have a beautiful baby girl, and I can once again ride!

Things aren’t looking so good around here.  I’ve been having major issues over the last couple of days with my blood pressure, and my doctor has me checking it throughout the day to make sure I”m not developing preeclampsia.  It’s not looking good, though. 

My blood pressure has been so high that when I called the doctor earlier she told me to go ahead to the emergency room when Hubby gets home from work.  She wants them to monitor me for a few hours to make sure we don’t need to put me on strict bed rest for the next month until it’s time for the baby to arrive.  If that doesn’t work my only other option is to be induced since that’s how you treat preeclampsia, but that’s not something we’re looking forward to this early in the game.  This means I may or may not be around much depending on what action she takes, so we’ll just have to see how things go.

Listen up all you people who spend each warm weekend hitting US 178.  You need to be a little bit more careful this year because law enforcement is cracking down on wreckless motorcycle riders.  Hubby called me to tell me he bought a newspaper this morning, and I knew there had to be something related to motorcycles in it if he bought it.  Front page of the Greenville News confirms what we’ve all been hearing for awhile.  There are far too many complaints and too many motorcyclists acting stupid.

Personally I chose to stop riding 178 last year because there was a lot of wreckless activity going on, and I was tired of it.  It’s hard to enjoy the ride when you’re worrying about what some idiot is doing passing in a blind curve and stuff like that.  There have been numerous deaths on 178 in the past few years, and most of them have been caused by people just not riding right.

If you want to push the limits of yourself and your bike, go for it, but do it at a trackday where you’re on a closed course.  Remember when you’re out there opening up the throttle and pushing yourself to the limits on a mountain road, you’ve got other innocent drivers and bikers all around you.  Think smart, and think safe.

One thing that irks me about the article is there is definitely a stereotyping going on.

Emily said he has seen some examples of reckless driving during the group’s frequent outings along State 11. “You’ll see some young people” driving recklessly, he said. “But we’re not into that.” Story here

Well guess what? We’re not exactly into that either, and we’re some of those young people. Heck I could take you to 178 on any given Sunday morning and show you a very large group of riders in their 40s and 50s who are up there pushing it harder than any of the “young people” out there. As a note to you journalists out there, stop stereotyping already. Choose your quotes carefully, and don’t make it sound like you’re lumping us all into one group because I promise we’re not all these hooligans you try to make us out to be.