Crash! Boom! Bang!

Two weeks ago on Wednesday we went on a family bike ride. This was a usual habit of ours, but it had been put off for a few weeks prior due to busy schedules. I was excited to get back out. The trail we go on is nice and secluded, although can be full of other bikers and joggers at times. Derek wasn't too keen on going out that night because he had a PT test the next day that he wanted to do good on. We decided we would go ahead and go, but we just wouldn't go as far. We probably went about 4 miles and then decided to turn around (yes, that short ride was turning into an 8 mile ride). On our way back there was a pretty steep hill that had a fairly sharp turn. Well, of course, since it was downhill we were all picking up some speed. I always yell for Derek to slow down on those hills because he always has the girls behind him in the bike trailer. As Derek was going around the turn there was a jogger right in the middle of the trail! He slammed on his brakes (primarly the front..oops!) and the bike trailer started fishtailing like crazy. He couldn't gain control and he went flying over the handlebars head first....landing mostly on his left shoulder but smacking his head too. Thankfully he had a helmet on! After he flipped the bike trailer flipped over as well. I was so scared. I must have hit my brakes pretty fast because I was off of my bike in no time and rushing over to Avery and Kaiya in the trailer. Tami helped Derek and Kevin called 911 because Derek was in extreme pain. We knew something was wrong right away just by feeling his shoulder and he was as white as a ghost. He was having a really hard time breathing and every time he tried to sit up he just about passed out. Super scary stuff. By this time it was just about pitch black out and we were no where near any roads.....and our car was probably another 3 miles away. It was taking forever for the ambulance to get to us. We could hear it, but couldn't see it anywhere. I finally got on my bike and took off on the path and ran into some firemen and showed them the way to Derek. Kevin and Tami took off with the girls to get them home for something to eat and get put to bed. I stayed with Derek and rode with him in the ambulance to the hospital.
We thought for sure something was broken, but come to find out it was probably even worse than a broken bone. It was a total separation (A-3) of his tendons in his shoulder.......meaning his shoulder and clavical aren't connected anymore. His clavical is just sticking straight up. We thought he'd have to have surgery, but after consulting with the surgeon last week he has decided not to do it. He started physical therapy yesterday. For awhile he couldn't move his arm at all, but he's made a lot of progess already. So, thank you for all of your prayers! Oh, and by the way, the girls are completely fine! Luckily the bike trailer has a roll bar so they were protected.

girls at the start of the bike ride

left shoulder-- you can't really see it very well

crack in the helmet