[Kopiklokoli]

About a year ago i fell pretty bad at NorthStar and because I hit my head, i went and had an MRI done. When the results came back I was told I had Chiari 1 malformation. I had no clue what this was, as the doctors talked to me they explained that basically it is a malformation of either the skull or the brain, i cant remember which, but the point is there is a small portion of my brain (the cerebellum) that is not protected by my skull. It extends out at the back of my head above where the spinal column enters the brain. Apparently this malformation is diagnosed if 5mm or more of your brain is exposed, I have 1.9cm exposed this was more then the doctor had ever seen. (You know its bad when they call other doctors in and go "hmmm have you ever seen this before")

Now my problem is that if I hit my head hard, for example if I fell off my bike the skull could pinch that part of the brain. If that happened I would lose motor skills, stuff like balance and the ability to walk.

I ride downhill and do tend to fall a lot, the doctor said that if I continue to take falls like the one I took in Northstar eventually it will catch up with me.

I have told some of my friends about this and their immediate response was "why do you ride," as you probably know explaining to someone how much you love riding is hard.

I am thinking about selling my Gemini and maybe buying a cyclecross bike or something like that, something safer, just so I can continue to ride. What would you from the perspective of a rider suggest that I do?

 

[Changleen]

We all have genitals protruding all the time. (Well, us guys anyway) We all have eyes, and little fingers. We have various parts of our bodies that are really prone to serious injury. We could lose the abilty to reproduce on any given no footer attempt.

Similarly any of us could be hit by a car, have a really bad fall, get cancer, or any one of, as it said on Snoop's **** '6 Million ways to die'.

You only get to live once, (probably, or at least that you remember so as good as) so if you really like mountain biking, keep the fvck doing it. Wear a full face lid if you're really worried. You could die 1000 other ways. Don't let 1.9cm of weakness take hold of your life. Even your nuts are bigger than that after all.