I am not a monkey, I am not a monkey, I am not...

I'll try to make this as quick as possible with enough details and yet not too gross.

I had just finished riding close to 400 miles in the past 20 days and was needed a few days off before the 1st MTB race of the year. The rain made the decision a little easier, so I planned on taking Wed-Fri off. On Thursday night, I was bored and decided to check out the local trails to see how dry they were and to do a little maintenance.

I put on my winter boots and marched about a mile to the newest, biggest downfall on our trails. I wasn't going to attack the hard spots, but figured that I could clean up the smaller, outer limbs to make it easier for Brian with the chainsaw.

I eventually found myself on the downfall and approximately 6-8feet off the ground. I was using both hands to hang onto a large branch above me and using one foot to push a cut branch off the ground. I remember slipping a few times and readjusting my grip. The next thing I remember is waking up on the ground and lots of blood spilling out of my mouth.

I don't know how long I was knocked out, but I've deduced that I must have slipped again and fell over backwards doing a full flip and landing on my face on the dirt. To make it worse, I think that I fell on my handsaw as that is the only thing that I can thing of that would have done the damage.

Net result: The lip was cut all the way through, including the muscle and is about an inch long. I also broke my upper jaw, just above the teeth on the same side. Lastly, I have a few small fractures on the cheekbone area between the cut and my eye (thus the black eye).

This first picture is after arriving home from the ER and the plastic surgeon. A little puffy, but not too bad. I have a before pic, but I'll spare the public (just imagine a Walrus' split lip).

The second picture is after visiting more docs on Friday and getting my jaw wired shut. This will fix the teeth displacement (I didn't lose any), and will also stabilize the jaw/cheekbone to help the cheekbone fractures heal. I am all puffed up here due to the wiring procedure. They must have really been pulling on my bottom lip (I had some cuts inside of it).

This last picture is from Saturday night. As you can see, the swelling is going down and the cuts are starting to heal.

Thanks to everyone that has emailed, texted and tried to call (I can't really talk on a phone now). I appreciate all of your well wishes and will keep you posted via the blog.

Tom