tetonrider

this forum's been overdue for a thread like this. injury-related stuff seems to get buried in other threads, or each injury can generate a thread of it's own.

i'd propose this as a place for people who suffered an injury, have questions or wisdom to share about injuries, want to talk rehab (physical and mental), and for those who love them.

got hardware from multiple sites ripped out today and am stoked. it's going to be another tough journey this year, but the fire and rage and optimism that IMO are necessary for me to come back have finally returned.

i'm proud of the fact that i've walked myself into the hospital each time i've been injured (even the broken femur) and made it out under my own power each time, too. today i walked out the door without even a crutch and drove myself home.

i hope that no one has to use this thread in the future, but let's face it--this IS the racing forum.

Ygduf

hmmm. a cyclist/surgeon I know advised me to just leave my clavicle plates in. And I don't want the recovery time for the bone to fill it. Why did you decide to get that one out?

The rest from your hip?

tetonrider

there are different schools of thought on this one and each one is filled with intelligent, informed people.

couple of things:
* i pretty much have zero fat/cushion in that area, and every single screw head/ridge of the plate could be seen and felt. i wear a pack 120-200 days a year....and honestly even a seatbelt could hit a nerve.
* as long as i'm going to race, i'm at a higher risk for breaking my clavicle again. it's still unlikely but could happen. some will argue that the clavicle with the plate is stronger than just bone, but the fact is it does create a stress riser where the plate ends. in my case due to the location and length of the plate, that stress riser is in a bad spot, so if i DO manage to break it again, then any repair is more complicated. without the plate and associated stress riser, a repair is not a big deal.
* some people will argue that once healed, sometimes bone overgrowth makes a bone a bit stronger than it originally way. i've heard those arguments and am not 100% sure how i feel. i don't disagree with it, but it's a minor point in favor.
* i was already going under general, so really minimal additional stress/$$/recovery.

i can deal with all the other pain but a big reason (honestly!) was that when i give my boy a piggy back ride or when he sits on my shoulders, he has the uncanny ability to hit a nerve, and as tough as i like to think (pretend!) i am, that feeling can bring me to my knees.

femur. had a rod (technically a nail) through the main bone, large sure into the upper trochanter and lag screws lower down on the bone.

my surgery got bumped up to first thing this morning and i was out of town until late the prior night--i didn't have time to trade my rollers for my trainer with the change, otherwise i'd probably toss a leg over the bike today.

hoping to be on skis next week, but with the way surgery tends to go i could be feeling great today and in tears tomorrow. i'm pretty good at managing the whole process now, though. more experience than i wish i had.

more info than you wanted. just putting it up there to add some meat to a discussion if this is going to be a thread that people use for reference.

rkwaki

Hardman status granted...

tetonrider

who would have guess that rkwaki is an authority on hard men?


a friend happened to get his clavicle plate removed earlier this week. he had a minor infection after it was installed (surgery risk), but apparently leaving a plate in does carry a higher degree of infection risk. it may be rare, but it is a point in favor of removal. my buddy has had other issues so is at even higher risk for re-infection.

mattm

The lengths weight weenies will go to... =]

What does it all weigh?

tetonrider

for real, mattm, for real.

felt "heavy" to me when it was in the bag (like 3/4 to 1#), but on the scale it was only 1/4#. really wanted to use that as an excuse for something, but no...can't even have that.

revchuck 

Just a data point...last March I touched someone's wheel in a race and crashed, breaking my right collarbone. The bone doc went in and inserted a plate secured with 14 screws. Everything healed normally. Fast forward to 1 October, when a guy pulled out from a dead stop on a cross street about 20 feet in front of me; the last reading on the Garmin was 18.2 mph. My bike pivoted to my right on impact and I hit the car solidly, with my right shoulder taking almost all the impact...yup, broke my right collarbone again, putting a nice bend in the plate. The bone doc said it wasn't worth going back in to replace the plate; had any of the screws ripped out, it would've been a different story. I seem to be in more pain, but am somewhat more mobile too.

shovelhd

I have no hardware in my body. However, I have two amputated fingers, multiple racing induced broken bones, and a flap cut into my left eye. Do I qualify for the gimp club?

tetonrider

welcome to the club!

hell, one's injury could simply be being butthurt over interpreting a post the wrong way ....as long as one have wisdom to add to the collective or feels they can benefit from that collected wisdom in some way.

seriously, though, IMO, the spirit of this thread is sharing information to help out others with injuries and leaning on others during recoveries as/when needed.

shovelhd

Dude you know I was busting.

Returning to racing after injury is tough. What can be tougher is dealing with those injuries for the rest of your life. It's all in perspective. Which reminds me, I can't wait to get back into the gym to start working my separated shoulder. It's sagging like your grandmas teats.

spdntrxi

I tore my acl,mcl and my meniscus last year..I have a hunch my acl is not good again and the little meniscus I have in my left knee hurts again. My ROM is not that great and I limp most days = gimp

furiousferret

I have two sutures in my peroneus, and half my tibia was chiseled off. On the whole its nothing compared to hardware, except one of those sutures rubs on another muscle and I can't walk more than 2 miles on uneven surfaces. Since the peroneus is the muscle that stabilizes the ankle, I can ride 5 hours no problem (200 TSS rides hurt the next day).

I'm going to need surgery on it someday, but I really don't want to.

grolby

I suppose I will soon not be a gimp, but I'm milking it. Second collarbone break is basically healed, still kind of sore and weak, but mostly there. Which means back to dealing with my chronic injury problem in the gastrocnemius of my right leg. I've had as many seasons dealing with some kind of limiting injury as without. It can be frustrating, because I know it's held me back and seems to crop up whenever I'm on my way up again, but I'm proud to have persevered. Still here. Still racing.

grolby

Regarding hardware: I had a repair done with a pin the first time I broke my clavicle, about a year ago. Supposedly you aren't supposed to notice, but it ended up placed further forwards than I think they expected (it was a complex repair, as it turned out). It ended up noticing poking at my skin near the medial end of the collarbone and caused quite a bit of discomfort. It's also difficult to explain, but just having the pin in there caused some degree of binding and popping from moving the joint. After the initial pain and discomfort and the operation to remove the pin, I felt much more comfortable and mobile. Of course, it's a very different sort of repair than a plate, because the pin is specifically intended to be removed, while plates are commonly left in. But that was my experience.

YMCA

I am in complete opposition to this thread

1) it's a constant knock on wood scenario
2) we don't always have wood available

shovelhd

Protest noted, now move along and let us get back to our whinging.

revchuck 

Not so, at least in my case. Everything above my neck is solid oak.

spectastic

this thread is very discouraging

why didn't you start a thread about how those injuries happened, and what you could've done to prevent them?

spectastic

there's a pill for that

YMCA

Seriously brilliant!
I'd stop by the 33 more often for that.
After all, most ppl blame others for their injuries, yet they coulda avoided their crashes more often than not.

rkwaki

Speak for yourself...

rkwaki

I cut myself shaving. Does that count?

spectastic

sounds more like a "bonehead thread"

grolby

Why don't you start a thread about the kinds of threads people should and shouldn't start?