The weather is great, the bike is ready, the healing knee bends enough; it’s time to head outside.
I’ve been dreaming of this day ever since I spent that first night in the hospital after my busted kneecap accident. Earlier this morning I finally finished up me beloved 2×9 set up. I like to run a 42T meat cutter chased by a 30T little ring on a 94 BCD bolt pattern. I find it is a nice balanced gear ratio for my riding. I have the same set up on my Blur, but my Gary Fisher frame has been a pain to get the same set up (fat chain stays). But finally, after a bit of grinding to the big ring, I got it to fit. Now hopefully it works in real time! One of life’s little victories.
Lately it seems I’ve been discovering lots of cool things, ideas, etc, which has injected 100 cc’s of positivity into my already positive system. I found out that all the World Cup XCO races are on the internet live – awesome. Same goes for Pro Tour races – live on the internet – awesome again. But there is too many things to blab about here but let’s just say when I told Bella all about it she thought it was pretty rad:
Is it cool to wear full on lycra even if you are going slow?
Mike
I’ve got a bad case of it. Here’s why:
Surgery + 6 weeks of inactivity = 1 skinny whimp leg.
Resolution: Time + Rehab + Pain = Not skinny leg.
So as you can see, like with many things, I’ve become a little impatient with my recovery. But luckily I’m 30 now so I have a bit of wisdom to draw on and I can realize to my self that this is a long haul so id bettet buckle up and settle in.
I figure I’m close to riding my road bike outside but far from shreddin’ the trails. I’ll take it for now! I hope to be spinnin’ the wheels soon which helps me to keep on going.
Trainer pic:
Berkley is my Co-Pilot
The swelling will eventually stop – right?
Mike
While I’m still relegated to riding indoors on the trainer, the weather was nice enough yesterday for some good road miles. The boys took along the helmet cam and here’s the result.
Does the wide angle make me look fat?
Mike
Here is a short vid of one of my rides on the trainer during the first week of my recover from a shattered left patella. I was playing around with iMovie ‘09 too…
Now time to get back on that trainer!
I wonder how long I will have to wait before I ride outside?
-Mike
Liesje and I joined forces with the Dave-Kristie tandem and headed down to snowy Cowtown to suprise Stef – her birthday is coming up so we unexpectedly became house guests for the weekend. It was a pretty fun weekend of not doing much, and like many times before, this trip down to Calgary included a bike on the roof rack. You see, I’m 100% committed to getting back to normal physical condition so I brought down my ‘cross bike so I wouldn’t miss any rehab workouts. By borrowing Josh’s trainer, I managed to get some good spinning in. I was feelin’ pretty good – enough so to start pushing a bit on the pedals – enough to break a sweat.
One weird tidbit about riding the trainer right now is that I can’t stand to pedal. You see, I just don’t have the strength yet to push my left leg over-the-top so what happens is that I kind of come to a dead stop. Really it’s a strange sensation. So I figure this is a safe measure as to when I’m allowed to start riding outside. Once I can comfortably and effectively stand to pedal will I allow myself to ride outside. Can’t wait.
I’m happy to say that my leg is definitely stronger than one week ago (when I began rehabbing it) and I’m motivated to keep it going. Hopefully my short term disability paperwork have been taken care of and I can start being a contributing member of society by going back to work….yeah, weird hey, I want to go back to work for work’s sake.
Quelf Scarf Neck Tie
Boys and girls took separate shopping trips on Saturday – us boys went for bikes & guitars. We checked our Bow Cycle’s big sale then hit up a couple of guitar shops. Good theraputic dude time. Nothing like a rousing game of Quelf to throw your inhibitions aside (except for lipstick wearing…)
So, one successful road trip down means I’m one step closer to a normal life. As each day goes by, I feel more and more normal; something to celebrate foresure.
I wonder how many times I’m going to be informed that I now have matching scars?
Mike
Today is the last day of my ‘healing’ period as I go to see my surgeon for my 6 week check up tomorrow. Wow, it’s been 6 weeks already; it sure did go by quickly. I remember back 4 weeks ago thinking it was taking so long – and that this day (6 weeks) seemed so far away, but every day and week that went by I began to feel more and more normal.
I’ve been away from work for quite a while. It’s funny what happens to your in box when you’re not there:
I finally felt energetic enough to tackle one of the main bike projects I have to accomplish before the sunny season hits. I’ve got my MTB all ready to go for the summer – now I have to get my body up and running.
So I’ve got a busy week ahead of me. A couple of doctor visits, some physio appointments, and maybe even get back to work for a couple of hours. It will be nice to get back to some sort of normal life that’s for sure.
Am I going to buzz the metal detector in airports now?
Mike
…until I begin my rehab that is.
So it has now been 5 weeks since my hockey accident where I busted up my patella pretty bad, and I must say I’m feeling pretty good – considering all that I’ve been through that is. One of my goals that I’ve set for my recovery was to be able to get my range of motion for my left leg up to 90 degrees by the six week mark – just before I start physiotherapy. Well, I’m happy to say that can bend my knee to 90! Horray, I’m ahead of my self imposed schedule.
I’ve managed to keep my spirits high and I’ve spent little time dwelling on my set back. I can only move forward and do everything I can to ensure I heal as best as possible. I will be able to ride again and I hope to be strong enough to race again – I’m just not going to rush the racing part.
These episodes that life throws at you really puts things in perspective (for me anyways). I look at the ’stressful’ things in my life with a different light now. Like I’ve started to say, nothing lasts forever. So either enjoy the moment while you are in it or don’t worry because soon things will change as nothing lasts forever. So I have a second chance with my health, as right now I’m frail and weak, but I will be strong again. So guess what, I’m going to enjoy that strength while it lasts!
I’ve got some good stuff to look forward to as well. So far I’ll be going to see The Killers, Coldplay, & Dave Mathews Band – all before the fall.
I have been off from work for the past 5 weeks, and I will not be able to return to office life for another week at the least. But I’ve managed to keep good company during my days at home as you can see from the pic:
So is it gross that I now can see the pins in my patella as two little bumps under my skin?
Mike
Yesterday I went to see the surgeon who repaired my shattered patella – 2 weeks post operation. As usual, the Plaster Room at the U of A hospital was packed and it took me 2.5 hrs to finish my visit. The longest wait was to get an X-ray – some 50 mins from once I entered the que…
So my patella was busted into 4 main pieces, which Dr. Bury wired and pinned back together, starting with the top portion & working down to the bottom. So question is, why not just put an artificial patella in? Well, firstly, the patella is connected to your body w/ soft tissue and blood vessels – so if they can save the patella, they will. You see, my shattered p-bone was still connected to my body, so by wiring and pinning it back together, it still gets blood and O2 delivered, which enables it to heal. So this is my un-expert reasoning as to why I did not receive an implanted patella. If they can save the real one they will. Eventually I will require surgery again (in 9 to 12 months) to have the pins and wire removed – as most patients elect to do so.
Anyways, the doc is happy with how my knee is healing & I’ve been given a couple of assignments for the next 4 weeks. I need to start bending my knee letting pain be my guide. Basically bend it ’till it hurts. It’s quite a weird sensation as there is not pain but rather resistance to my leg bending. It’s like I’m stretching my muscles just to bend it like a normal person. Amazing how little time it takes of inactivity for your leg to ‘freeze up’ like this.
The second exercise is to statically flex my quad. Simple enough eh…we not totally. Since my quad has been inactive for 2 weeks, I can’t even flex it! I try and it’s just mush. So I’ll have to work on that too.
I still need my crutches to get around, which makes matters quite a bit cumbersome.
The good news is that I’ll be riding my bike again in no time. Race this year? Well, that may be a stretch as it will take a while to rebuild strength – but we’ll see. I’m in no rush to getting back to competing but I’m sure in a hurry to ride again! I was very relieved to hear this as you can imagine how difficult it would be to hear that you cannot do the activity you love to do again. Funny as the doctor told me I’m going to have to buy a bicycle for my rehab. I smiled as I proclaimed “I think I got that covered” 
Do you think the extra pins and wire in my knee will affect my power to weight ratio?
Mike
Check it out Evan!
