People are good and the system works

Yesterday I hit a pothole while biking up N. Allen St. and flew over my handlebars. Lying on the street, unable to get up, bleeding all over the asphalt. Several people stopped to help; one neighbor called 911 and then called my house to let Dr. Mrs. Q know, somebody else locked up my bike. The Madison police and some EMTs arrived quickly, were reassuring, got my arm (which I thought might be broken) stabilized, checked me for concussion. They were all very nice and reassuring and pooh-poohed my apologies for how many cuss words I was yelling out. Not long after that I was in an ambulance, where they got some pain meds in me. I told them I was a little scared and needed reassurance that this was a routine injury, the kind of thing they see every day, and all the personnel in the ambulance said, in unison, “This is a routine injury, the kind of thing we see every day.” At UW Hospital the established that my shoulder was just dislocated and not fractured, and got the thing back in its…