Saturday, September 23, 2006
Don't try this at home
John's journeys
On September 11, 2006 I was going for an evening ride with my wife and my sister in law. I was still working on getting used to my new cycle shoes and pedals. I stopped to let a car turn in front of me and as I was starting back up I was having trouble getting my shoe locked back into the pedal. I looked down at my pedal to see what was wrong (don't try this). The next thing I remember is the pain of running head on into a steel pole and crashing to the concrete with my other foot still locked into the pedal. I had a horrible amount of pain in my leg and my right foot was pointing in a different direction than my left one (not a good sign). I decided to lay there for a bit before jumping to any conclusions and to see if the pain would subside. It didn't. I sent my wife to go get our car because I determined I needed to go to the hospital. While she was gone I managed to get myself over onto my good leg and I did a one legged knee bend and made it onto my foot standing up. The pain was nearly unbearable and I decided this wasn't going to work. I eased myself back down as best I could and collapsed onto my good side. I said we better call an ambulance. A nurse showed up from somewhere and checked my vital signs. The ambulance arrived and loaded me in. It was a very painful experience. On the ride to the hospital the attendant cut off my new cycling bibs. ER did an x-ray and told me I had broken my hip. They gave me lots of morephine and admitted me to the hospital to wait to see a bone doctor in the morning. He stopped in at 8:00am. He told me he would have me in surgery by 10:00 or so. As they wheeled me into surgery they parked my gurney along side a really strange looking machine. I asked someone what they used that machine for and they chuckled and said that was what they were going to put me on for my surgery. I didn't get to watch. They gave me a give a darn shot and a spinal block. The next thing I remember was people pulling all kind of sticky things off my chest/legs/etc., must have been the heart monitor connections. I didn't feel them pull the ones off my legs but I sure felt when they pulled my chest hairs out. The recovery room was a facinating place. Most of the other people in the recovery room were unconcious. I guess when they use a spinal block you get to see what goes on in recovery. They told me I would be able to go to my room as soon as I could move my toes. There was so much activity going on around me I couldn't believe it. It reminded me of watching MASH. They kept wheeling a portable x-ray unit into the room and x-raying people after surgery to make sure everything was in the proper place. My x-ray showed three 4" long titanium screws holding my hip together. I think they were ancious to get me out of there because I kept asking questions and watching everything so as soon as they saw me move my ankle they said " that's close enough, get him up to his room".
The 15 hours between my crash and surgery were incredibly painful. I layed flat on my back staring at the ceiling. Morephine didn't seem to help. I was pleasantly surprised when I came out of surgery pain free. They told me the spinal block would help with the pain for up to 24 hours. The next day they took me for my first physical therapy. Getting out of bed was difficult and painful. At physical therapy they issued me a pair of crutches and taught me how to get out of/into bed . I made it through the week without any pain medication and they left me go home on the 15th.
Now I have a return of pain. My son needed to borrow my wife's Honda CRV for a weekend retreat he was leading so she came to pick me up in his Chevy Cavalier. Not a good idea when someone is 6'5" tall and has a broken hip. I wasn't about to change my mind and stay in the hospital so after getting as close to getting in the car as I could manage I asked the guy that transported me to the car to force my foot/leg to bend enough to go the additional eight inches to get it into the car. It was a long ride home. Arriving home I had to have help forcing my leg to bend enough to get it out of the car. Then I had to make it up the stairs. By the time I make it upstairs on my crutches I was ready for some pain medication.
to be continued:
On September 11, 2006 I was going for an evening ride with my wife and my sister in law. I was still working on getting used to my new cycle shoes and pedals. I stopped to let a car turn in front of me and as I was starting back up I was having trouble getting my shoe locked back into the pedal. I looked down at my pedal to see what was wrong (don't try this). The next thing I remember is the pain of running head on into a steel pole and crashing to the concrete with my other foot still locked into the pedal. I had a horrible amount of pain in my leg and my right foot was pointing in a different direction than my left one (not a good sign). I decided to lay there for a bit before jumping to any conclusions and to see if the pain would subside. It didn't. I sent my wife to go get our car because I determined I needed to go to the hospital. While she was gone I managed to get myself over onto my good leg and I did a one legged knee bend and made it onto my foot standing up. The pain was nearly unbearable and I decided this wasn't going to work. I eased myself back down as best I could and collapsed onto my good side. I said we better call an ambulance. A nurse showed up from somewhere and checked my vital signs. The ambulance arrived and loaded me in. It was a very painful experience. On the ride to the hospital the attendant cut off my new cycling bibs. ER did an x-ray and told me I had broken my hip. They gave me lots of morephine and admitted me to the hospital to wait to see a bone doctor in the morning. He stopped in at 8:00am. He told me he would have me in surgery by 10:00 or so. As they wheeled me into surgery they parked my gurney along side a really strange looking machine. I asked someone what they used that machine for and they chuckled and said that was what they were going to put me on for my surgery. I didn't get to watch. They gave me a give a darn shot and a spinal block. The next thing I remember was people pulling all kind of sticky things off my chest/legs/etc., must have been the heart monitor connections. I didn't feel them pull the ones off my legs but I sure felt when they pulled my chest hairs out. The recovery room was a facinating place. Most of the other people in the recovery room were unconcious. I guess when they use a spinal block you get to see what goes on in recovery. They told me I would be able to go to my room as soon as I could move my toes. There was so much activity going on around me I couldn't believe it. It reminded me of watching MASH. They kept wheeling a portable x-ray unit into the room and x-raying people after surgery to make sure everything was in the proper place. My x-ray showed three 4" long titanium screws holding my hip together. I think they were ancious to get me out of there because I kept asking questions and watching everything so as soon as they saw me move my ankle they said " that's close enough, get him up to his room".
The 15 hours between my crash and surgery were incredibly painful. I layed flat on my back staring at the ceiling. Morephine didn't seem to help. I was pleasantly surprised when I came out of surgery pain free. They told me the spinal block would help with the pain for up to 24 hours. The next day they took me for my first physical therapy. Getting out of bed was difficult and painful. At physical therapy they issued me a pair of crutches and taught me how to get out of/into bed . I made it through the week without any pain medication and they left me go home on the 15th.
Now I have a return of pain. My son needed to borrow my wife's Honda CRV for a weekend retreat he was leading so she came to pick me up in his Chevy Cavalier. Not a good idea when someone is 6'5" tall and has a broken hip. I wasn't about to change my mind and stay in the hospital so after getting as close to getting in the car as I could manage I asked the guy that transported me to the car to force my foot/leg to bend enough to go the additional eight inches to get it into the car. It was a long ride home. Arriving home I had to have help forcing my leg to bend enough to get it out of the car. Then I had to make it up the stairs. By the time I make it upstairs on my crutches I was ready for some pain medication.
to be continued:
# posted by John @ 4:14 PM 
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I'm doing better. I went through two bottles of percocet but now the pain has calmed down. I visited the surgeon and he told me to stay off my right leg for another month. He showed me the x-rays with the over 4" long bolts sticking in my leg holding me together. The home health nurse was just here and drew some blood to test my warfarin level. I'll be glad when I get off that rat poison.
Ok, I'm doing better. Still not allowed to put ANY weight on my right leg until after my next doctor visit Oct. 30. I'm getting pretty good at going up and down stairs on the crutches. I'm off the rat poison now and just take one asprin a day. The Freakz have been having lots of fun and I have really been missing it. The fitness center put a medical freeze on my membership so that I don't have to pay for something that I am not able to use. I can hardly wait to get back there and hit the swimming pool. I'm even looking forward to the stationary bikes. Might start out on the recumbant. I am sometimes able to sleep for up to four hours at a time now. The first few weeks sleep was a little bit here a little bit there.
I can't seem to access this blog to continue the posts. I'm doing well. I've had many bike adventures since breaking my hip. I suppose I'll have to start over if I want to start blogging again.
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