Crashing

[SallyCat]

Lol, baking bread would be a sure sign of cabin fever for me, too!
Glad you're on the mend well ahead of ski season.

 

[nopoleskier]

Pretty well, actually. I had the stitches out a week ago, and though it looked pretty bad then, I'm starting to see considerable improvement in the laceration and road rash. The scabs are starting to go away, and the area that was stitched is healing, too. That said, my knee is not where I want it to be; it's still very stiff and tight, and the range of motion I need for walking and bending isn't that great. I have a bunch of exercises and I'm extremely motivated, so I'm sure I'll get there eventually. Tomorrow makes 3 weeks since the accident, so perhaps I'm a little impatient. I'm still feeling very lucky that it wasn't worse, and I'm definitely happy this didn't happen in October or November. I'm used to being active, so this is hard. How hard? I've done two jigsaw puzzles in the past week, and today I'm baking bread for the very first time. So obviously, I'm bored.

maybe try some arnica it's great for deep tissue bruising and helps me alot with 'range of motion' on my sprains and old broken bones.. you can get at hannaford in rutland in the health food dept called "the rub"
Cocoa butter is amazing for helping scars disappear.
I'm so Glad you're healing up!! I know you'll be fine in time for ski season.. and yum fresh bread :-)

 

[geargrrl]

Want to trade puzzles? (Seriously)

If you are concerned about ROM maybe check in with a PT. Sometimes all that stiffness can mean deeper damage than you thought.

Me? Here are my lessons: patience, acceptance, one day at a time, let go, how important is it..... I can't drive, I can't do a lot of chores, I may be on crutches for a other few months. I can't change it so I have to live with it.

 

[geargrrl]

I didn't learn a drop as a bunny hop ...

Of course not. Let me clarify. All these additional moves give you more Co told, movement and maneuvering options on the bike. You might end up using unweighting or compression in ways you never thought of.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Me? Here are my lessons: patience, acceptance, one day at a time, let go, how important is it..... I can't drive, I can't do a lot of chores, I may be on crutches for a other few months. I can't change it so I have to live with it.

Yes. I think there's a fine line between a reasonable amount of necessary sadness (grieving the experience) and dwelling on the situation. I don't know where the line is. On some level I think I spent a little too much time being rah-rah about my injury and surgery rather than allowing myself to feel sad.

Of course not. Let me clarify. All these additional moves give you more Co told, movement and maneuvering options on the bike. You might end up using unweighting or compression in ways you never thought of.

Assuming "Co told" is phone-speak for "control" - this makes perfect sense.

 

[geargrrl]

phone speak---love it.

Ya'll familiar with the term "accident"? Accidents happen. My neighbor broke his neck riding a road bike on a deserted road: a litttle stick got into his wheel and he went over the bars. Another friend had a teeny little bump that turned into a grade 3 concussion. My orthopedic surgeon broke his pelvis on a road bike at the same time my hub broke his pelvis on a mountain bike.

All sports have risk, some more than others. But life has risk too. My sister broke her neck tripping on the stairs at home. People cut thier hands to the bone slicing bagels and avocadoes. They get hurt at the gym. The "maybe you should give up mountain biking" comments are annoying. I'm certainly not going to give up sports becuase this is the first time since '98 that I've seriously hurt myself. My friend with the grade 3 concussion, still not 100% after 7 years, says, "they call it an accident for a reason. Don't beat yourself up about what might have been different".

Here's a good site
https://injuredathletestoolbox.com/

 

[bounceswoosh]

The "maybe you should give up mountain biking" comments are annoying.

Yeah, that's gross.

Two of my most chronic issues have been wrists and shoulders. The shoulders are definitely linked to office desk posture; the wrists - come on - I'm a software engineer. And yet no one has ever suggested I should quit my desk job and do something more dynamic. (I just reminded myself to sit up straighter, LOL!) My neck and shoulders were at their best when I was recovering from surgery - I worked exclusively in a recliner. I don't think I'll be able to convince any office to put a recliner at my desk ...

The ACL process has had, and continues to have, an exponentially bigger impact on my life than any other injury. It did make me rethink some things, but that rethinking led to me realizing that while some activities weren't that important to me (hint: ones that I didn't do that often), others absolutely are worth the risk. I was surprised to find that mentally, I'm right back in the game with skiing and mountain biking. Unfortunately, my knee is still not with the program. So that was a surprise.

On the other hand, I can see where eventually injuries could take enough of a toll to make me think, "Okay, enough!" I love intense sports where there is a risk of injury, because they help me focus and I love the rush of doing something scary (just the right amount of scary - I have to know it's within my abilities) and succeeding. It's not surprising that doing that sort of thing can occasionally cause injury.

And yes, I know plenty of people who've gotten hurt just walking along, doing something normal. It would be interesting to compare the rate of mountain biking or skiing injuries to car related injuries *by number of hours*.

Weirdly, such a major injury can have a silver lining (and I always do look for a silver lining). All the posterior chain work I did for rehab has given me a much more efficient pedal stroke. I'm not talking speed per se - but before the injury, my quads would get sore pretty much as soon as I started riding. I just bulled through. These days, that doesn't happen on the same trails, and sometimes it's my hamstrings that are sore after riding. (PS - this is with flats!)

 

[Albertan ski girl]

@SallyCat @ski diva - catching up on all of these missed threads! hope you are both doing better, and that the recovery is going well! sending lots of positive thoughts your way!

 

[SallyCat]

Thanks @Albertan ski girl !

 

[bounceswoosh]

Funny(?) thing - one of the items I ditched was a road bike. I mean, it never fit properly after several professional fits - or rather, it was probably fit pretty well, but something about either a road bike or riding on the road hurts my knees. I think just the repetition. But I also took into consideration that in our area, several cyclists die every year after being hit by cars. Then Nicky Hayden, a motorcycle racer, died after being hit by a car - riding a bicycle for training. For whatever reason, that's the one that got me. If I'm going to die in an accident, it's going to be doing something I love, not something I tolerate for exercise. I also thought, well, if I'm getting rid of the motorcycle because of the danger - road bikes are like motorcycles without the ability accelerate or the level of protection.

This is NO comment on anyone else's choices. Just mine.

 

[SnowHot]

Its been 6 years since I had my last big bike crash. I had 11 fractures in 8 ribs and a broken collar bone. The crash and resulting pain was bad enough that it got into my head and I haven't gotten back into biking like I was.
I've taken bike clinics, including a down hill course with full protection. I've bought 5/10 shoes and grippy pedals so I'm not clipped in(being clipped in was freaking me out)
All of these things helped me a little, but I doubt I'll ever bike like I used to. :(

 

[bounceswoosh]

Its been 6 years since I had my last big bike crash. I had 11 fractures in 8 ribs and a broken collar bone. The crash and resulting pain was bad enough that it got into my head and I haven't gotten back into biking like I was.
I've taken bike clinics, including a down hill course with full protection. I've bought 5/10 shoes and grippy pedals so I'm not clipped in(being clipped in was freaking me out)
All of these things helped me a little, but I doubt I'll ever bike like I used to. :(

I'm sorry =/

Sometimes I think "But who would I be without doing X?" ... but then I remember there was a time in my life that martial arts was so important that I didn't think I could even date someone who wasn't also into it to the same degree. It's okay to change direction or emphasis. I think it feels a little bit like a failing if you're doing it due to fear, but it's not. You had a terrible experience, and your brain is trying to protect you from ever going through it again.

So I guess all to say - there's nothing wrong with dialing it back. There's nothing wrong with quitting an activity that no longer brings you joy. It sounds like you're sad because you miss that feeling, and it's okay to grieve that. Over time, if we're lucky to live long enough, we're all going to have to let go of activities that we once thought defined us.

 

[bounceswoosh]

^^ ugh. I sound so preachy. You know all this =)

 

[SnowHot]

I'm sorry =/

Sometimes I think "But who would I be without doing X?" ... but then I remember there was a time in my life that martial arts was so important that I didn't think I could even date someone who wasn't also into it to the same degree. It's okay to change direction or emphasis. I think it feels a little bit like a failing if you're doing it due to fear, but it's not. You had a terrible experience, and your brain is trying to protect you from ever going through it again.

So I guess all to say - there's nothing wrong with dialing it back. There's nothing wrong with quitting an activity that no longer brings you joy. It sounds like you're sad because you miss that feeling, and it's okay to grieve that. Over time, if we're lucky to live long enough, we're all going to have to let go of activities that we once thought defined us.

Thank you for the kind words.
It did feel like a big fail, especially after I did things to try to get my mojo back and only got a little mojo.
There came a time when I decided that it was okay to just dawdle around on the bike from time to time.
There are other factors in the priorities in my life these days.
All in all, life is good.

 

[luliski]

I had 11 fractures in 8 ribs and a broken collar bone.

That's so many broken ribs. Ouch and dangerous! Just curious, was that a mountain biking or road accident?

 

[geargrrl]

Does it matter?

 

[SnowHot]

That's so many broken ribs. Ouch and dangerous! Just curious, was that a mountain biking or road accident?

Mountain bike.

As for the broken ribs.
I didn't go to the doctor for 5 days. When I did finally go to the doc, she told me I was very lucky because one of the broken ribs was dangerously close to my liver, and she scolded me for not going to the emergency room the day of the accident. It was a long recovery.

I'm not sure what happened because I was alone and unconscious. I still have no recollection of the day until about 5PM (accident happened around 8 AM). I honestly think that I would have gotten my mojo back better if I remembered the accident. Then I'd know what happened to cause it and I could "avoid that"
@volklgirl was with me a few years before that, when I broke my wrist going through sand. I bounced back from that quickly by getting better at going through sand.

 

[mustski]

You are all so much braver than I. As a kid, I rode everywhere and I do mean miles and miles a day. We lived in suburban Montreal and were surrounded by forests and undeveloped land. Our parents didn't keep track of us during the day. They just assumed someone would feed us and, if not,we'd come home because we were hungry. One day, I braked hard to avoid someone who turned suddenly and went over my handlebars and broke both my wrists. Add to that it was the middle of a doctor's strike and 3 separate trips of 6+ hours in the ER before I was seen (over a 2 week period) and you have a major childhood trauma! I had untreated broken wrists for 2 weeks and then they broke them again to set them. I am TERRIFIED of riding a bike. I am happy on a tandem with my DH because he's an excellent rider and I don't have to brake!

ETA: I feel the pain of inactivity. That's one of the worst parts of injury.

 

[bounceswoosh]

You are all so much braver than I. As a kid, I rode everywhere and I do mean miles and miles a day. We lived in suburban Montreal and were surrounded by forests and undeveloped land. Our parents didn't keep track of us during the day. They just assumed someone would feed us and, if not,we'd come home because we were hungry. One day, I braked hard to avoid someone who turned suddenly and went over my handlebars and broke both my wrists. Add to that it was the middle of a doctor's strike and 3 separate trips of 6+ hours in the ER before I was seen (over a 2 week period) and you have a major childhood trauma! I had untreated broken wrists for 2 weeks and then they broke them again to set them. I am TERRIFIED of riding a bike. I am happy on a tandem with my DH because he's an excellent rider and I don't have to brake!

ETA: I feel the pain of inactivity. That's one of the worst parts of injury.

Oh, jeez. That's awful. That might have done it for me, too. I was relatively sedentary until I was a teenager and started martial arts.

Which reminds me of one of those "WTF" events @ski diva mentioned. A teen testing for his next belt did a jump front snap kick to break a board. This was a super common kick that we did *all* *the* *time* with no issue. It's not mechanically all that different from skipping. So he jumps, kicks, breaks the board, lands as usual - and his leg breaks. It was the most bizarre thing.

 

[altagirl]

The funny thing is that while I've done plenty of high consequence mountain biking over the years, you would NEVER get me on the back of a tandem bike. DH wants one so bad but there is just no way. He has showed me way too many videos of people doing stoppies/ nose wheelies on tandem bikes and I know that's what he wants one for. He's an excellent rider but I like being in control on a bike.

Haha, so yeah, walking across that suspension bridge, no problem. Back of a tandem bike? Oh, hell no.