Long story short: I crashed on my hip and fractured my femur. I had surgery the next day and now I have a titanium rod and some screws in there.

It happened on February 3rd. The first week was good- I could feel progress every day. I'm completely off of pain killers now, which honestly made me feel worse than the pain itself. Not sure how people get addicted to those.

Anyway, progress has slowed and I'm already getting impatient. I was wondering if you guys have any stories about recovering from injury. I'd like to hear them. This is my first serious injury and I have a lot to learn.

I had a dirt bike fall and put its entire weight on my knee. After the injury I could barely walk but I could bike with no pain. The doctor looked at me like I had two heads when I limped in with a brace and told him I pumped out a 42 miler a day earlier. This was July 4th and I still have pain but I'm up to 2 miles jogging after physical therapy. Even they thought I was crazy when I said I was going to start running at the gym to see how my knee feels three weeks in. They all agreed that if I knew my limits, what I was doing was going to help much more than sitting on the couch though.

nine months ago i dislocated (permanently) my left sterno-clavicular joint. the one that connects my left clavicle to my breastbone. it was about 13 days before i was back on the bike. Advil only, plus a lot of wasted money going to orthopedic doctors. anyway, three weeks ago i fell again, this time on my right shoulder (i just did a simple wikipedia diagnosis) and separated it. it still hurts, again Advil, and am back on the bike after 16 days. the worst part is that while i was laid up i managed to put on about 1/2 pound per day. good luck to you.

BTW, i'm anticipating many, many responses, people just LOVE to talk about their injuries. zzzz...zzzzzzzzzz....zzzzzzzzzzz

I shredded some tendons in my ankle last March and my doc suggested surgery... I kept cycling right up till 2 days before surgery (ha ha) but it's hard to do that in a cast, so I was off the bike till august. I rode a century in mid-August with just about no training, so aside from being slow and cramping like mad, it went fine.

I would suggest following your doc's recommendation on PT and get the PT person to guide you on how aggressively you should restart cycling. I don't think a plate and screws will restrict you much but your bone might not be done healing yet.

And welcome to the plate and screw club, we should design jerseys.

You were taking the wrong ones! Completely j/k, not really..

My injury story... #%*-+$%&#-*+#$%!!!!!!!!!

I haven't started PT yet, but I have an appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday and hopefully we'll get the ball rolling on that then.

For the first few days, walking on crutches was a struggle. I did as much of that as I could, trying to keep good form. Now I'm to the point where that's no longer a challenge, but I'm not good enough to walk on my own yet. My flexibility is poor and I've been doing a little ROM stuff, but I'm afraid to push too far just yet. I think once the doctor looks at the X-rays and a PT shows me some exercises that I'll feel more in control of my situation.

It's going to be hard to decide when to ride again. It could probably be a good part of the healing process, but part of me wants to be at full strength first because I'll be tempted to push myself too hard too soon. I'm much more rational with weights, hiking, etc.

Tore a hamstring sprinting (running not cycling) which nagged me for years. I tried physical therapy, stretching, strengthening, active release therapy and even staying off the bike. Nothing seemed to help. Then,the pain just eventually went away.

+1 Sometimes we rush things, i still have pain from a Nov. fall that broke a rib. So with all the OP went through i think slow and steady would be good advice.

Slow speed crash at a water stop in early August. Went over hard on the left hip. Badly sprained hip flexor injury that had me using a walker for a month. Back on the bike in Oct and November but almost nothing in December. Did forty miles today, longest ride since August. Still have some discomfort in that side. Hoping by summer it will be gone!

About five weeks ago fell while riding on some black ice. Going very slowly but left foot didn't release cleanly and ended up with class 1 MCL injury on left knee. Able to ride on trainer without any problems but generally stiff and sore. Worst problem is that I have trouble sleeping since I wake up every time I turn over. It is a lot better than when first injured but it is getting me down. That and the persistent cold weather.

wait 'till you get old and your prostate swells to the size of a football. it's not painful, but you'll be waking up every hour to pee.

Tell your doctor and your PT person what you want to do and have them work you towards it. Cycling is pretty low stress, they can probably get you going earlier than later. Having said that I completely ignored my doctor's recovery advice - he wanted me cycling with an ankle brace, which I did once or twice but really... my ankle isn't twisting on my bike so I gave it up for a bad idea.

No spring chicken but fortunately don't have that particular problem yet. Normally I sleep well so this is new and frustrating to me. Haven't slept "in" a bed other than a few times since the injury. My feet keep getting tangled in the sheet and hurting the knee. Been sleeping either on the couch or on the bed with just a blanket. Fortunately my daughter (a sports trainer) said that cycling is good rehab for MCL so I can at least do that.

Injured my back 3 years ago had spinal fusion 14 months ago and still recovering.

ugh....

3 fractured ribs
fractured scapula
collarbone fractured in 4 places
fractured hip (femoral neck)

Collarbone and hip will probably never be the same. Hip was the worst one to recover from -- lots of atrophy, flexibility issues, plus injury happened right before winter. Guessing it took a good 4 months to feel like I could deliver a solid effort on the bike. But, honestly I feel pretty frickin good now. *knock on wood*

Then there's the off the bike surgeries... lol

This!

I fractured my right femur (actually broken into two, with a lot of small pieces). I was lucky I had a fantastic ortho, who visited with me the night before surgery to ask me about all the physical activities I like to do, then gave me assurance that there is no reason I won't be able to continue, post-surgery and recovery. I also was advised by my brother to bust my ass in rehab, which I did. So, if you have not had the surgery yet, talk with the ortho about your physical activities and your concern about being able to resume them post-surgery and rehab.

So, make sure you get a good physical therapist, ask him/her for a rehab plan with metrics that will work for you post-rehab, then work that plan like crazy.

Good luck!

sure there are some physical ones...dislocated right pinky finger that bugs on long rides, nail through the upper palm on the right hand between the ring/middle fingers that aches after 50 miles, left elbow that's usually pretty good unless there's lots of standing climbing/torque, callous on right foot that acts up after 25+ miles and makes me feel like i'm pedalling on a superheated stone, stiff back some days which is better than the bulging disc that used to exist back there, left knee wanting alimony the last two years...but i still think the worst are the 2 concussions i've suffered on 2 falls while cycling. one at 40 mph. one at 20 mph. wearing a helmet both times-thank goodness.

had 4 concussions in total and the cycling ones were #'s 3 & 4. lost my descending nerve after #3 . used to be more
"balls out" but i'm now at about 75% of what i used to descend at post-#3 concussion. concussion #3 involves "invented memory" and still haunts. like a invisible bullet scar.

concussion #4 also involved the first broken bones of my life at age 41: upper 3 left ribs + left clavicle. no residual effects from the broken bones on the left side.

During a century ride my front wheel was taken out by a rider trying to avoid a pothole. Not time to react, went down hard. While down was run over by at least one other cyclist.

Lots of road rash, fractured clavicle, 4-5 broken ribs, punctured lung, fractured scapula. Five days in hospital and pain meds helped the first two weeks. It was easy to slowly wean off of them. Spent the first week at home sleeping in recliner, then transitioned to the bed. Went back to work 1/2 days during week 3, then full time after that.

Was out of town during week 5 and road the spin bike some during week 6. At the beginning of week 7 (yesterday) went for my first ride, new bike (old was trashed) and it felt great to get back in the saddle. I've lost some fitness, but not as much as I thought. It will take several weeks to get back up to speed, but looking forward to the challenge.

I haven't been injured that badly. Among them: Broke an ulna on a Sat morning, got a plate put in that afternoon, was back to work Mon. Severed an ACL MX racing on a Sun, went to work Mon, got it fixed Thu, took Fri off and was back to work the following Mon. Broke a clavicle on Sun in a bike race, took no time off and was riding 10 days later. I got a couple of concussions, should have taken time off, but didn't and am probably stupider now because of it. Broke ribs twice, once mtcl racing and the other mtbing.

Agree. None of the pain meds I got were any fun at all.