Monday, February 2, 2009

Bones heal and chicks dig scars

So this is my first post in quite a while, and the reason for this is because I have not been able to ride since the beginning of January. Why you may ask, when we have had some decent weather, and I have basically no classes?


Because I am stuck in a cast kind of thing and am not supposed to be weight bearing for the next month/month and a half.

So here is the story:

I went up to Cincinnati with Jessica to see Jared and his family over the winter break. We had a great time hanging out, went to an amazing concert and a great comedy club and had a blast on Friday. Saturday, we decided to go out to ride on the trails and hit some man made obstacles. This would have been fine, if the weather for the previous weeks hadn't been straight rain, snow, sleet, etc. The trails were muck, our tires were covered, but we were still having a good time. We got to one of the last obstacles, a balance beam. This beam was about six inches wide, and at its highest point about 2-3 feet off the ground. Nothing horrible, or so it seems. Jess, Jared and I all took turns and we kept at it for about 15 minutes, until my front tire slid off the beam to the right, and the bike took my foot with it. Intense pain follows along with me sitting on the beam with my left foot in my lap, trying to keep myself from vomiting all over the trail. My foot even popped back into place, or so it felt.

So, I cant walk because of the pain, so there is basically one way to get back to the car... ride my way about half a mile to get to the trail head. So I am able to kinda do this, have to get off the bike a couple times to go up the hills cause I cant put any power into my foot. Great. Cant walk, cant ride, cant really do anything. So off to Jared's house to ask his dad, "Hey, theoretically, if someone broke their foot, which hospital would you take them to?" Jared's dad said that he would drive and take Jess, Jared, and me to the Jewish Hospital. They took great care of me, and were able to slap a brace onto my foot, but couldn't find anything wrong with it. The percocet that they gave me helped the pain a lot. Two percocet would help just about anything when you have nothing on  your stomach. 

So the next day Jessica and I drive back to Roanoke, and I drive back to Grayson County. Pain pain and more pain, and I go to my family doc to have her check it out about a week later. Still swollen, horribly bruised, and still cant walk. Onto the orthopedist. Carmondy(the orthopedist) took more x-rays a week after the accident, and still couldn't find anything wrong. So we schedule an MRI for the 29th of January and another doc visit on the 30th. Lucky I don't have many classes now. Finally we know what is wrong, a stress fracture of the medial talus bone (which connects the leg to the foot), partially torn ligaments on the outside part of the ankle, and a bruised tibia. Fun stuff right there. 

If I wasn't a healthy 22 year old, and was 4o years old or unhealthy, it would have been a severe break of the talus, and severe dislocation of my ankle. Probably would have had to been carried off of the trail.

So, no biking for all of January, February, and probably part of March. Ugh, and I was going to try Wintergreen Ascent this year. Oh well, guess it gives me time to practice my horn. 

So, the moral of this story is: try the man made object, just expect to get hurt on the 15th try.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

:(

This was supposed to have been a minor injury... sorry to hear it's still a problem.

Heal quickly!