Coping with injuries and setbacks, how do you do it?
Originally Posted by
chasm54
A couple of organs for a power meter and a book? Great trade. Which organs?
[MENTION=392045]yankeefan[/MENTION], I've read, and replied to some of your posts in the past, signing myself as
bostonredsoxfan, so I have no substantial reason to doubt your story, and I read it with an open mind.
I have been cycle commuting, road riding and cycle-touring since about 1972...truly a lifestyle. I was hit by a car in June 2012, and was hospitalized for six weeks, off work for three months, and off the bike for five months, during one of the best cycling summers ever. I was torn from my cycling lifestyle, as well as other activities, like work, family life, and hobbies.
I just had to be patient and take time to heal, which was itself a consuming task. One-by-one I resumed the various activities, cycling being the last. Going back to work certainly hastened the process, especially since cycle-commuting was a viable activity, as part of work. I am more enthusiastic about riding than ever, and may even be a better rider now too.
During that summer I kept up with Bike Forums, and got a lot of support from various subscribers, some with whom I had corresponded on or off the Board. I had had so much cycling experience over the years, that I always found topics to chat about.
BTW, this was one of my hospital experiences that gave me hope for the future:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
…You pointedly asked for an inspirational story. I myself suffered the trauma of a rear end collision on my bike. I was in an acute care hospital for about two weeks, rehab hospital about four weeks, off work for three months and off the bike for five.
But don’t cry for me. Argentina. Here’s a rehab story I learned of, almost as a mystical experience. It's also about trauma, but IMO holds out the hope of healing when things seem bleak.
When I was about two weeks into my hospital stay, I was watching an un-named, circa early 1950's black-and-white movie with the sound off because my roomate was asleep. It seemed to be a romance, with Glenn Ford and Anne Baxter. A scene came on where they were driving in a car and had a sudden collision, and Glenn threw himself in front of Anne. He awoke in a hospital bed, and she was OK.
The following scenes showed him gradually recovering, as he tried to get out of bed with a trapeze bar, then walk with a cane. Soon, he strangely, and surreptiouously from Anne Baxter, slipped away to a golf course and tried to hit some balls. She was obviously mad at him when he got back (all this still with the sound off.) Then there appeared on screen a newspaper headline that
Ben Hogan was going to participate in an upcoming major golf tournament.
It turns out that the movie was
“Follow the Sun,” a 1951 biopic of Ben Hogan. I looked him up on Wikipedia, especially about the accident and found this:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Hogan and his wife, Valerie, survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus on a fog-shrouded bridge, early in the morning, east of Van Horn, Texas on February 2, 1949. Hogan threw himself across Valerie in order to protect her, and would have been killed had he not done so, as the steering column punctured the driver's seat.
This accident left Hogan, age 36, with a double-fracture of the pelvis, (I had a fracture of the sacrum) a fractured collar bone, a left ankle fracture, a chipped rib, and near-fatal blood clots: he would suffer lifelong circulation problems and other physical limitations. His doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf competitively. While in hospital, Hogan's life was endangered by a blood clot problem, leading doctors to tie off the vena cava. Hogan left the hospital on April 1, 59 days after the accident.
After regaining his strength by extensive walking, he resumed golf activities in November 1949. He returned to the PGA Tour to start the 1950 season, at the Los Angeles Open, where he tied with Sam Snead over 72 holes, but lost the 18-hole playoff.”
This episode gave me a first glimmer of hope that I would be on the bike again…