Well, I’m playing a little catch-up here. Actually, things are a bit unexciting right now, so I figured that I would dredge up a mild “distraction” from the past. It was last November 19, 2007 (yes, I remember the day) and I took a beautiful late-Fall Monday off work to go ride some trail on our off-road motorcycles.
That day, I was riding my KTM 450 XCR-W with front and rear suspension revalved and resprung by Jeff Slavens of Slavens Racing here in Colorado Springs, CO – the best-handling off road motorcycle I have ever owned. It was a gorgeous day – clear and cool with a mild breeze to blow away the dust. We had ridden 50 or so great miles, then we headed to the truck to take a break. After re-fueling, we thought “why don’t we get in another quick 10 miles?”
Off we went. About three miles in, we headed down a steep, gravely, rutted downhill. Same old, same old. Near the bottom, something went a bit out of kilter and before I knew it I was on my side. No biggie, just your garden variety slide-out, but man did I whack my ankle – ouch! I picked my bike up, caught up with my riding buddy and we decided to make our way back to the truck. We loaded up and I headed to the house where I unloaded and washed the bike and put it up for next time. By then, my ankle was getting rather large, and Frances, my wife, insisted that we head to the ER at Penrose Hospital and have it checked out.
Well after about four hours, the attending (who was about to send me home with a sprain) finally looked at the X-Rays and informed me “Sir, you’ve got a broken leg.” My jaw fell to the floor and I blurted out “No way!” This was quickly followed by the attending’s response: “WAY!” So much for bedside manner, right?
Oh well, they splinted it at the ER and I went home and called my orthopedic surgeon’s nurse, Sandy. I guess it’s a pretty bad sign when you can get ahold of your surgeon’s nurse after hours. She told me to come in the next day and see Dr. David Walden. I caught Dave at around 10 a.m. between surgeries. After looking at my X-rays, he looked over at me and asked “What did you eat for breakfast this morning??” At that point, I knew I was toast….no pun intended.
Dave told me to head over to to Memorial Hospital that afternoon. Bear in mind, this is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving! By the time the anesthesiologist started administering the “Milk of Amnesia,” it was between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. Kudos to Dr. Walden for working me in and making it happen – I owe him one! Anyway, after a while I woke up with a nice anesthesia hangover and this lovely piece of work:
Yeah, that’s a plate and six screws, including two so-called “syndesmotic” screws that go through both the tibia and fibula to hold the ankle joint together during the healing process. Only my fibula was broken, down in the region where the three lower screws converge. Funny (yeah, hehe…), they look like a bunch of drywall screws. Just what I needed at 50!
Dave told me that I would be totally non-weight bearing for about six to eight weeks. Oh boy…crutches, hobbling around on one foot, showering on the little plastic stool and taking 30 minutes to get dressed! Been there, done that about 10 years ago (also an off-road motorcycle “event”).
Oh well…it could have been worse and I got a LOT of work done from home over the next several weeks! So much, in fact, that I probably drove some of my staff out of their minds dealing with the steady stream of emails!!
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