I fell off my bike yesterday. I was on one of the trails on campus and saw a stray branch on the path. I could have gotten off and kicked it out of the way.

Coulda. Woulda. Shoulda. Didn't.

It was slick and smooth. We just had rains the night before. It crossed the path at an angle. I tried to turn into it.

Didn't. End result, I took a tumble. That earned me two tiny nicks across the base of my palm, a quarter-inch cut and a square-inch raspberry scratch on my knee.

Nothing major. A "dust yourself off and keep going" sort of fall. In fact, I did just that; I brushed off the dirt and finished my ride to work.

Enter the Plavix. It's a blood thinner I take to keep scars from forming over the stents in my coronary arteries. Those nicks, cuts and especially the scrape bled and bled. No, not like some horror movie. Just drips and trickles.

The nicks on my palm I guess sealed up from me gripping my bike handlebar. The knee was another story. I laid on my office floor and propped my leg up.

The scrape kept soaking through gauze pads and bandages. It took probably five hours with direct pressure on it before it stopped. I wasn't resting that whole time, or even most of it.

Well, none of it, really. I had a deadline and was running way late. So, I had at it and kept at it. It's not like I had a choice. So long as I wasn't feeling woozy or in danger of dripping on the carpet, I gave work higher priority than getting patched up, seeing as I did most of it already. Seeing a doctor would only be for signing off on my work.

Oh, and to tell me that there isn't much to be done for the rib that hurts a little. Either I bruised the bone or maybe I gave it a small hairline thingy. It's still attached and I can breathe in and out without difficulty. Just a small twinge if I take a deep one.

I called the advice line and they agreed, so all's well. If only a little sore.