In 2006 I was t-boned by a driver that ran a stop sign. Smashed into me at speed and crushed my right side, throwing me 10 feet one direction and the bike 10 feet in the other direction.
The bumper of her car hit me first on my lower right leg, breaking the tib-fib into pieces. I also smashed up against her hood, getting a concussion, and the impact caused spinal nerve compression that led to mild numbness in my left leg for two years. I also had a lot of cuts and scrapes from bouncing off her car and on the pavement.
They sent me to the hospital in an ambulance and I went right into surgery. They cut me open at the knee, drilled out my tibia, inserted a long rod (called a “nail”) and put in a bunch of screws.
When I woke up, the pain of the injury and of the surgery was unlike anything I could even imagine. I was puking from pain despite the morphine when they tried to get me to stand up and attempt PT. I went home on oxy and Percocet’s.
After 3 long months of healing, the tibia hadn’t healed. I had a “non-union”. Basically, the break was so bad the break couldn’t heal 100% without help. I needed a bone graft.
I had to go back and do it all over again. They cut me open at the knee, pulled out the old nail and did a bone graft out of my femur. They cut open my femur, scooped out bone marrow, mixed up with some sort of plastic mix, applied it to my non-healing area, re-drilled my tibia, inserted a larger diameter nail, added a plate to the front of my tibia, and put me back together with even more screws.
That night in the hospital (after the second surgery) I had a blood clot in the middle of the night and the nurses all ran in with a crash cart, screaming at me (I was awake) to “Press down, press down!” I remember them calling my wife - I assume because I was in danger of not making it. The blood clot passed and I lived.
They sent me home on oxy & Peracet again. Only this time I got a box full of syringes. I had to give myself a shot in the stomach twice a day with blood thinners so I didn’t die of a blood clot.
If the second surgery hadn’t worked, they would have amputated the leg at the knee. But it did work. I had a final, minor, third surgery to remove a screw from my ankle that was backing out. But that was easy-peasy compared to the first two surgeries.
So how am I now? Still full of metal. My right knee is good most of the time, but sometimes it’s stiff or occassionaly painful for a day or two. But then it will be fine for months. I can ride bikes, lift weights, and hell, I’m even going to a Muay Thai class with my teenage son kicking pads with the leg, no problem. My ortho said the bone graft worked so well that extra bone grew back on top the tibia, making it stronger than before the injury.
It was 9 months from the day of the accident to the day when I could walk without assitance (i.e. a walker, cane, etc). It was a long haul, for sure.
I will say the mental impact took a harder toll (long term) than the phyiscal. I do still ride my bike. But if I see a story of rider who crashed hard, or (God forbid), died on a ride, it deeply impacts my mental state and I have to take time off the bike, or just ride on the trainer. There are days when it’s glorious outside, but if the crushing weight of a bike accident (mine or someone else’s) is on my mind, I can’t ride outdoors.
Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough. My main advice is to play the long game and don’t hesitate to seek mental health help. That’s the one thing I poo-poo’d and put off. I’m probably still suffering some level of PTSD from the whole ordeal. Don’t “man-up” and just think about getting back to physical training. Pay close attention to your mental health, and ask for help if you need it.
God speed on your recovery.
Pic of the leg after the first surgery. I had no idea what a long recovery was ahead of me…
