Featured A "little" Detour--after A Bicycle Crash And Two Broken Bones

Hi, @Dave C! Yes, I was thrilled to open my Valentine's card and find the ZZ Top tickets! I will have to look up Queens of the Stone Age. Pretty cool that the band members were strolling around during the day and that you got to meet some of them.

Yes, Mr. Sandi is absolutely in love with learning to play the guitar. And he approaches it from so many angles including knowing about the guitars themselves, the history, musical genres, and then of course learning the music aspect of it all. It's the first musical instrument that he's ever played in his life. And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. He's also just loving learning something completely new and novel.

Very cool that your son has played from a young age! I do think it can be a bit easier to learn young and partly because when we're older sometimes we simply overthink things. Youngsters often just give it a go and aren't so worried about what others think or about doing it wrong. Plus if you learn something when you're young and you love it, you just have that many more years of your life that you can enjoy doing it! My only regret with riding motorcycles is that I didn't start many years before I did. But that's just how life works, I guess. We do things when (somehow) the time and timing is right.

 

Hi, @stevie28. Just checking back to let you know that Mr. Sandi and I watched The Gamechangers film on Netflix upon your recommendation. What a terrific documentary. We were very impressed and (actually) stunned by the research and objective information and have consequently both made some dietary changes because of what we learned. Little by little.... And we've told numerous friends about the movie, too. Thanks again so much for letting me know about it!

 

Thanks for checking in, Ken! I do appreciate the thought about the $500 bill to cheer me up. That would definitely help. In fact, $500 is exactly the amount of my medical insurance deductible. I'd be happy to send you my mailing address and you can write me a personal check.

So my out-of-pocket medical expenses (and this is with insurance that I pay $670/month for) are nearing $3000 and I haven't yet received a bill for anesthesia during my surgery. Dang! That's a lot of motorcycle farkle, parts, and gear.

In terms off my healing, I'm moving along. Yesterday I walked 40 minutes at a crack. I'd say I'm about half the pace of my "power walks" but that's all right for now. I feel ok while I'm walking but am pretty ouchy (understatement) for the rest of the day. But today I did the exact same route and did it in 31 minutes. So my pelvic fracture is healing nicely.

My elbow is 5 weeks and 2 days out from surgery. I have a follow-up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon tomorrow morning and am hoping he has good news about my healing and how much I can start to pretty my PT. Three of four range of motion measures are at 100% or just shy but elbow flexion is s-l-o-w going. In fact, I went nearly two weeks with no change. That was depressing and discouraging. But I feel like I've made some gains in the past couple of days. Next PT appointment is Friday so time will tell.

I know I just need to be persistent and patient and be glad that I'm on the mend. It does help to see posts from my forum buddies that are encouraging and make me laugh. So thank you, Ken!

 

I am SOOOOO relieved and excited! I had great news at my appointment with my orthopedic surgeon this morning. My elbow is HEALED! So I can start doing whatever I can do with it. He said use it, lift with it, move it.... He also said that I should be able to touch my shoulder with my thumb in 2-3 weeks. Hallelujah! I have a PT appointment tomorrow morning so I'm sure that Mike, my therapist, will have lots of "fun" things up his sleeve for me to do. (Ouch!) But I feel such a huge sense of relief that I'm not going to do something to allay my progress or damage my elbow that I can't even express it. So here we go! Crank city.

And for those of you that have been following this thread and saw the gawd-awful photo of my elbow some weeks ago, here's the updated version. I've been liberated from the steri-strips and things are starting to look at least somewhat more normal. My surgeon was very pleased with my scar and healing. In fact, things are going so well that I'm going to go with Mr. Sandi to a vacant parking lot this weekend and see if I'm at a point where I can drive my new manual transmission Mustang Bullit. At this point my pelvic fracture and accompanying left leg weakness may be more of a limiting factor for driving (and the clutch) than my left elbow. We shall see. I may need another week but I'm itching to drive that beast! And to RIDE MY MOTORCYCLES!! And Mr. Sandi is itching to NOT be carting me around to work and to appointments.

A huge thank you to those of you who have been so encouraging and supportive of me after my bicycle crash. I love you guys! I'm not out of the woods yet but I'm nearer the edge of the forest!

 

Thanks, dilli! I appreciate your encouragement! But it might be just a little too much for us to get to GMU this year unfortunately. But we’re definitely looking at making the trip next year! This year I’ll just have to attend GMU vicariously through stories and photos on the forum. So make ‘em good!

 

Hey, guys! Thanks for all your encouragement after my ortho doc report. I truly appreciate it and it makes me smile. I got a bit more good news this morning as I got a "whopping" (ha) 8º more range of motion in my elbow flexion. After no change for a week and a half I was very happy about that! And, of course, now my physical therapist has me doing more home-based PT since he got my report from my ortho doc. He's also pushing my elbow a bit more when he works on it, too. And we've started doing some strengthening exercises. They don't seem like much but I sure do feel it!

We'll see about the car this weekend. I'm so eager to drive it but after I go for my "therapeutic" daily walk, my pelvis and hip really pay the price. Maybe that just means drive first, walk later! I've been cleared to drive by my ortho doc but want to be certain that I can use the clutch safely--for my sake, the sake of my new car, and mostly for the sake of others out on the road!

You all will be among the first to know when I do start driving the Bullitt. And, yes, @Bad Billy, I'll remember that "no pictures, didn't happen"!

 

I’ll check it out, @stevie28!