A few of you have gotten updates about this via my twitter feed, instant message, text, etc. I'm writing this article to udpate everyone on my current situation.
On 2015-10-15 at about 2:30 am I was involved in a biking accident. I hit a parked car. I don't remember a whole lot so I can't tell you exactly how it happened. I finally bought a helmet about a month ago after riding for about ten years without one, but I was not wearing a helmet at the time since I was just doing a quick six-block ride to El Farolito and didn't think it would be a big deal. The accident happened a block from my apartment and all I could really tell is that I was really fucked up, couldn't see well, but was close enough to home that I could walk home and figure things out. I called my good friend Erik when I got home, and he Ubered over and helped me clean up my face and took care of me.
The next morning Erik came over and helped me get things sorted out---helped me make an appointment with a doctor. I went to One Medical and the doctor I saw was basically like---"yeah, you need to go to the ER to get CT scans". The doctor at One Medical also did a basic check of my wrist and shoulder which were also in a lot of pain and from his preliminary analysis determined that I hadn't broken my wrist/collar bone/shoulder.
Immediately after this I went to St. Francis hospital which is near Hyde & Bush. After doing the usual wait-several-hours-in-the-ER thing I got a CT scan of my left orbital lobe, a CT scan of my head, and an X-ray done of my right wrist.
Here's the prognosis I got.
I probably sustained a mild concussion, but the CT didn't show any brain trauma.
My shoulder hurts a lot but is just bruised. No broken bones, no broken rotator cuff, etc.
My wrist did sustain a hairline fracture, but I don't need a cast. They gave me a removable plastic/velcro brace and told me to wear it as I feel necesssary.
The bad news is that I sustained two fractures to my left orbital lobe. The info sheet they gave me when I left the hospital says "Blow out fracture of orbit; Maxillary fracture." Right now I can't open my left eye at all due to all of the swelling in the region. I also don't have a lot of feeling of the entire left side of my face. All of the trauma is to the front of my face, I didn't hit the top of my head. They did pull open my eyelids and did a basic eye check and they think my eye is fine.
They did tell me they would have stitched up a big cut I got on my eyebrow had I come in the night of the incident, but by then it was too late to suture. I'm going to get a sweet scar there, so if you also count the forehead scar I got after my last major bike accident I've now one-upped Harry Potter on face scars.
I didn't ask for any narcotics because my pain level right now is bearable (as I said, I don't have that much feeling in my face).
This Monday (2015-10-19) I am getting facial surgery. From what I can tell from my online research, basically what they're going to do is try to realign everything as best they can, get bone fragments back where they should be, try to realign my jaw, fix any pinched nerves, etc. That should hopefully get me most of the feeling in my face back, although I think the whole thing with me not being able to open my left eye is mostly contingent on the severe bruising/swelling I have in that area so I think I just have to wait that out.
Also, my bike is in great shape. I just tore up the handlebar tape and twisted the seat post. The seat got a bit scratched and is bloody but that's easily cleaned. As far as I can tell there are no scratches on the frame.
Side note: if you're ever in a non-life-threatening situation and have the option to choose which ER to go to, I would not recommend St. Francis. If you've been to any of the ERs in SF (I've been to SF General ER twice) you know that they're frequently full of homeless people who aren't necessarily in a real emergency situation but rather are trying to get drugs or other random things (one guy at St. Francis literally just came in to ask them to get him a taxi voucher to send him to a homeless shelter so he could shower). St. Francis is the closest ER to the Tenderloin, and it blew my mind how many homeless people came in to the ER for nonsensical things, how many people lied about what they were being admitted for (as in, they came to the back to get an assessment, and then just asked for drugs even though they told the front desk that they had some other problem).
Update: turns out the appointment I have on Monday is just a consultation to get surgery, not the day I actually will be getting surgery.