And a year after...

How to start this is a bit of work for me.. I was going over notes and pictures from almost a year ago and is a bit of mixed feelings about it...
So what about I open it with a picture of that day that for sure changed the course of my life in more then one aspect..

Yes that is me sitting on the side walk and on the back you can see my bike laying on the floor... MY BIKE LAYING ON THE FLOOR..!!!! As you can see also my pants are ripped.. This sure looks like a bad combination for a picture...

Yes!! I got hit by a car..!! Now please don't panic this was a year ago and this is part of the story of how it happened.. Where and how far I came along since that day...

Soon after the top picture was taken I got my first and hope last ever ambulance ride...

People tells me that I look very cheerful for what had just happened to me... My answer to all of them? "I just got hit by a car and I am talking to you" Do you see how lucky I am? Come on..! A car turn into me from the opposite side of the route as I was riding on the bike lane ... The lady didn't see me and run right into me..

What did I get? How much damage to my body? After the paramedics took a look at me and asked me all the traditional questions I told them all I have is something wrong with my right knee..

And the bike? Well the bike didn't look too bad at that moment...

Later on after a few months of resting in my garage and finally a visit to the local bike shop for full examination gave me the full story of how much (£) damage was done to my poor bike..!! By the way it was a brand new bike with less then 200 km on it when this happened... But £500+ later the bike works well now.. Too long to list all the parts that were changed..

Me? I had a bit more work and longer rehab time then the bike..

So what happened? What did I break on my leg? What was next?
To be honest I knew something was wrong with the knee because it hurt when I was trying to make it straight or bend it... But I could never guess it was this bad..

Doctors words that day: Well you have a tibia plateau fracture, you have to stay with us till Tuesday when we going to operate to fix your leg... This was a Friday afternoon...!!!! And to me they were speaking Chinese I had no idea what a tibia plateau fracture was... Or how could this affect me.. Now I am sort of an expert in the subject..

From that Friday to the Tuesday before entering the surgery room I had a lot in my mind, I am almost 40 and never went under the knife before... I never had a broken bone before.. I never even got a stitch on me before this time.. I was really scared.. You never know how you are going to react to the anesthesia.. So a lot of weird ideas went on and on in my head.. I was extremely emotional before the surgery and even asked my wife and kids to leave because i was crying like a baby.. Didn't want the kids to see me that way... The little man still remembers that day and says...: Papi i was sad for you.. I never saw you crying before.. (hold on I feel another nut in my stomach)

The moment arrived..! Went to surgery...! They put me to sleep.. 3 hours later I woke up and asked one of the nurses there... "Was everything OK?" Yes..!! Uffff...!!! Relieve finally..!! My leg was there and I was ready to be moved back to the room..

 
And most likely i have a big smile because of all the morphine I was taking.. I really didn't like that stuff..! Made me so sick that I preferred to deal with the pain of the after surgery instead of feeling like puking and light headed all the time..

now it was time to get the new cast on it.. My daughter asked me to get a pink one so Why not?

After all I told one of the male nurses I am man enough to carry it without a second thought in my head... "What about you?" He just smiled...

This was Wednesday already and they were planning to keep me there till the following Tuesday at least... I told them what do I have to be able to do for you people to let me go home??
Physio people said " If you are able to go up and down the stair on crutches you can go"
Me: Give me the crutches...(Thursday) I was hopping around the room and going to the bathroom..
Friday around noon I gave it a try to go up and down the stairs.. Friday night I was home reunited with my family..

Kids and I really happy..!!!

All this situation showed me that there is some really good people out there.. Around me and some others that I didn't even know I could count with...

I got lots of presents from local people... And some others came from far away..

And some more kept coming in the mail...

Got tons of e-mails from others wishing me well.. Some local visits.. My club stopped by a few times to check on me during the rides..

they picked me up and took me out for coffee and lunch... Seriously in this bad situations is when you know who you can really count on..

People from USA a former cycling club of mine got worry and asked what they could do.. My online friends also offer help.. (even monetary help, Thank you!)

My local club? They deserve a post of their own and I will get to it eventually.. But this far all I have to say to all of them is thank you sooooo much..!!

Now you can see the damage done by the lack of exercise when you are hurt at this level...

You see when they got that cast on me it was tight to my leg... I lost 10 kilos during my time in bed..Most of it was muscle and I was extremely scared of gaining weight that I was eating only like 1500 calories a day.. Or not even..

Finally after 6 weeks of the surgery the cast came out and I could finally see my leg and take a proper shower or bath or at least was that leg..

I know not a pretty sight but believe me it was so nice to get that thing off my leg and start some sort of rehab..!!

Now they took the cast off and they put a hinged knee braise that allowed me to start bending the leg to certain degree... But not allow to put any weight on it yet.. but at least I could start doing some movement with the leg and start getting some mobility back in it..

Beginning of December the doctors allowed me to start putting partial weight on it while still on the crutches.. This was another mile stone for me as this gave me a bit, just a little bit more of stability to move around the house and not been confined to the first floor all the time.. Still had to be extremely careful with each step and think my every move before taking it..

Finally the New Year and Christmas and my birthday passed.. Really not the best holidays ever but still managed to have it nice for us... My wife deserves a monument..! All the stuff that she went through is amazing..!! I have it good with her..!

And January was when they allowed me to start doing some little cycling again.. Little and no pressure.. But that was one of the happiest moments as I put my leg over the bike and did a few pedal strokes to see how it felt..

Since that day till yesterday was a none stop rehab program on the bike... I came a long way since last year this time around.. A lot of work was involved in getting back on my feet.. It wasn't easy, not for me or my family... Again have to say thanks to my wife for carrying with almost all the weight of having a family..

Besides the sweat tears and even some blood (cut my self cooking, smile life is beautiful) I can say that yesterday when I went to the hospital and they answer all my questions and told me that I basically have to learn how to live with all the feelings I have (pain, numbness, tightness, cramps, a little limp and more pain... Did I mention pain?)

I was finally discharged..!!!

I am free to keep going with my life as normal as it will get.. lots of limitations but that is not the point..! 

Life is like riding a bicycle.. If you stop moving forward you will fall or get stuck in the same place...

So keep pedaling, keep moving forward, keep riding the bicycle of life no matter how hard it gets..

Thanks for reading 

See you at the next post..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy