Yesterday went pretty well, considering. I still haven’t spoken to the doctor, but he told Trudi that everything went perfect and I should heal up fine. It turns out that the break was one of the “better” hip fractures you can get, and that with just 5 screws and a metal plate, it is all back together.

I can’t believe how much less painful it is now. Like 10% compared to before. Something like just normal road rash. I think my main problem right now is that my left leg muscles seem to be all seized up and it is really kind of impossible to move my leg. I’m not so good with anesthesia, so am pleasantly surprised I’m not all jacked up from that. No one has really said much about the pelvic facture, so I guess that just takes care of itself. Kind of strange. It is probably just all the pain medication? I just only realized that I have a catheter to urinate. You’d think I would have noticed that before?

I guess I’m supposed to spend a few more days in the hospital. I’m not sure why. To me, I think I’m pretty good to go and wouldn’t mind just heading home. I guess I’ll find out more later this morning, when everyone else is awake.

My few observations from this whole ordeal, medical-wise –

#1 Hospitals are really loud places. Like super loud. Don’t expect to get any sleep or rest. There is always someone coming in to check vitals, change IV bags, turn off alarms, give pills, something.

#2 Teaching hospitals, such as the University of Iowa, has more traffic going through your room. Like tons. Residences, nursing assistants, medical students, ect. It is mind boggling how many different people have introduced themselves to me.

#3 The food here is really bland. You have to “order” salt and pepper, or anything else, like butter for an English muffin, etc. I’ve only had one meal so far. I thought I ordered a ton, but was starving when I was done. For breakfast, I’m ordering the whole menu.

#4 Ambulances have terrible suspensions. The two ambulance rides I took to get from the race to the hospital and from the hospital to Iowa City were horrible. I know that having a broken hip exacerbated the bumpiness, but come on, most people in a ambulance are in some sort of pain I’d think. It is like riding in the back of a one ton pickup truck. Horrible. You’d think that they would have that figured out by now. For the amount of money it costs to get into one of those things, you would think it would be the most luxurious ride you could imagine. Exactly the opposite.

#5 Out of all the people at the hospital, the nurses are the ones that are the most important for the patients. I have two really great nurses. They are working 12 hours on, 12 off. I don’t’ know how they do it, but they seem to stay cheerful and busy the whole time here. It is the most important part of the stay so far.

I’m pretty optimistic about the next bit. Like I said above, I haven’t spoken to the doctor, but from just word of mouth, I might be back riding way sooner than I could have imagined. I believe that I got really lucky, considering, and that the whole season isn’t going to be a write off. Not that it is the most important thing, but I do like riding my bike.

Trudi drove straight here from Pro Road Championships in Chattanooga, just in time for me to head down to surgery, so she is here. She went back down to Davenport to hang with Bromont and stay with Jeff and Deb. It would be a waste having her up here. It is such a perfect set-up down there for them. If I would have known, I should have brought her bike with me and she could go out riding on the bike path system they have down in the Quad Cities. It is pretty good.

I don’t have a photo of the post operation hip, just the broken one. In the photo below, the break is the dark area at the top of my leg bone, where it angles to the left. They put in two long screws through the femur, into the head of the hip, to pull the whole thing back together, then a plate and three more screws below it to strengthen the whole area, I guess. I wonder what would happen if/or more accurately, will happen, when I fall on that stainless steel plate. Maybe there will be enough soft tissue around the area, the plate is deep enough, so it just doesn’t come poking through the skin? I wonder if I’m going to set off metal detectors at the airports now? That would be weird.

Little gory looking. I didn’t think the incision would be so huge.

The title of this post isn’t quite accurate. It should have been, released from the hospital. I didn’t have to sneak out or anything. My guy, Doctor Karam came by yesterday morning and we had a good talk. He told me that the surgery went as perfect as it can go. He said that he was confident that if I had the ability to stand on my leg that it would be strong enough to hold my weight and that he doesn’t foresee any issues. Man, this guy is one of the chosen few. I was very fortunate to get excellent counseling from my friend Stacie, which connected me to Dr. Karam. He is so good that I’m going to use him for my follow-up appointments, even though it is a 6 hour drive.

Dr. Karam told me yesterday that I could head home anytime I felt up to it. Normally it is a 3 day stay, but like I posted yesterday, the foot traffic through the room and lack of sleep doesn’t make for much recovery. So, I did a PT session, walked on some crutches, up and down stairs, had one more bag of IV antibiotics and headed home less than 24 hours after surgery. It might have been just a tad premature looking back now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have that drive behind me, but yesterday wasn’t pleasant. It was actually down right ugly.

My left leg is so swollen that it is nearly impossible to move. Plus, my right rotator cuff shoulder is a little tweaked from the crash, so using crutches is awkward and a little sketchy. I did sleep pretty much 8 hours straight last night, so feel a ton better already. But my leg is crazy big. I weighed myself and am 168 lbs. I left Topeka just a week ago at around 150. And my stomach skinfold is next to nothing, so nearly all that extra weight has to be fluid buildup. That is a lot it seems.

I’m not going to go crazy and push anything here, but I’m optimistic that I’ll be riding really soon. I know that the soft tissue damage is going to take a long time to repair itself, but the bone should be really good in 6 weeks. That is hardly the middle of July.

One downside of leaving the hospital early yesterday was that I missed out on some treats. Bob Hayes, Muscatine promoter, came by with some homemade chocolate chip cookies after I left. Plus, Jay Thomas, (Trek Stores owner, Capo Clothing) sent me a Hawaiian pizza since I posted how bad the food was. So nice on both of their parts.

One reason I wanted to get back was because Brian is racing the Dirty Kanza on Saturday and I was hoping to be able to go over to Emporia and cheer him on some. Right now that seems like a stretch, but maybe I’ll feel a little better in a couple days.

Okay, gonna try to catch up on some sleep and food today. I have only had 4 meals since Monday morning and that is just about how many hours I’ve slept too.

This is what they did. Looks pretty good to me.

This is the guy that did the work above, Dr. Karam. He is one of those guys, the special ones.

It was nice getting all the tube out of my body yesterday.

Michael (Fatka) made a surprise visit, right when I was leaving the hospital. We left, ate lunch with Michael, then did the 6 hour drive back.

This is Kirk Willett. He came by and visited a couple times. He rode for Mercury and Prime Alliance 15 years ago, then took over the DS position at Toyota-Unite, before going to Medical School. He has 6 emergency room shifts left and then he is done with residency and is moving back to the state of Washington to practice. It was great having him come by. He’s wearing a flight suit here. He was on call to go out on the Life Flight helicopter, so was prepared.