Yesterday was the anniversary of the day the hit-and-run driver (white SUV; stopped briefly, turned and fled at high speed) left me for dead at the intersection of Lomas and Tramway here in Albuquerque. It’s been a long year in some ways, and a short one in others, and has inspired me to write a lot more on here than I’d imagine. The one take away is do the work; even in the face of relatively massive injuries you can get back to mostly normal. If you’ve found this on the acetabular fracture — I feel for you. It’s awful. It can be dealt with, at least if you have a good surgeon and PT.
This is a (severely) late post. It covers August and September, and we’re almost out of November at this point. I’m just not a good blogger, but it you’re reading this about recovering from an acetabular fracture and what you can do, hopefully this one is a hopeful post. Most of mine are; the surgeons at UNMH did a great job and I have not been able to thank them enough, and my PT at Langford Physical Therapy was also amazing. The big thing here is — doing the work has let me now do the things I love, and not just on the bicycle but also walking and somewhat climbing.
Back when I got off crutches, Heather and I bought new hiking boots as an ‘aspirational gesture’ — the plan was that we’d do more hiking. Between her chronic pain and my hip, aspirational was definitely the part of it. I ended up with Lowa Camino‘s from REI. They’re lighter than the Asolo’s I wore up Kilimanjaro in 2010, but much bigger. Either those were WAY small or my feet have WAY grown. We broke them in a little bit just around, but the first real trial was to do the Aspen Vista Trail above Santa Fe, in August. (The 9th, actually. Hiking right around my birthday).
quite the view
After the jump, maybe a little more. But not a lot
… and there’s a good chance it’s the last one. I will say that I was trepidatious about having an implant shoved in my neck, and learning that they were going to slit my throat open while I was sedated not under general made it even better.
The implant thryoplasty is done, and the additional arytenoid adduction was apparently NOT warranted. The surgeon’s report here at the Mayo Clinic to Heather was that the worst part was my bad jokes and prepending inappropriate comments while they were asking me to talk as they adjusted the implant.
The last 11 months have been challenging, but in August the new bicycle finally arrived (a month after I picked up a CraigsList Giant Defy that served me OK and at least weighed 5lbs less than the MTB). After a few shorter rides from August on, I decided to challenge myself and do the Day of the Tread 100 mile ride. The Bianchi Infinito CV is an endurance frame, after all, and I’d done the Santa Fe Half Century at the end of May on the mountain bike, so what could possibly go wrong?
Most of Day of the Tread is fairly flat, down along the river valley. For additional fun, the century ride takes in two climbs — the first up Tramway and on to Academy that I am familiar with and the second up Placitas that I’ve only ever done with a motorbike. The leaves were turning, the weather was crisp (downright cold at the 8:15am start) and it wasn’t horribly windy. All good signs. Of course, the fact that it was 18 months since I’d done more than 60 miles was a bad sign, but it was supported…
