Dustin's bad luck. :(

[phreadom]

Our very own resident admin and regular Dustin was hit by a car today while riding his bicycle and is hospitalized with a broken collarbone and requiring hip surgery. He's looking at 3 to 6 months recovery time after his return home in a few days, so let's all wish him a speedy recovery and newfound progress on his Japanese studies while he convalesces.

[chikara]

That is bad luck.

I hope you have a speedy as possible recovery Dustin.

[Txkun]

Oh my... I hope all will go fine and you will be back soon.

[NileCat]

I'm hoping for your quick recovery from Japan!

[SakeIt2Me]

Poor guy! Get better soon!!!
I hope your surgery goes well Dustin, so that you can be pain-free as soon as possible.

Cyclists do not fare well in our cities, I'm afraid.
I was glad to read that it wasn't worse, as there have been quite a few fatalities around here lately. It takes a brave man to ride a bike among cars!

[becki_kanou]

Oh no. And he was so excited about cycling and getting ready for the triathalon too.

Dustin our thoughts are with you. Here's hoping you will be back up and around as soon as humanly possible.

[phreadom]

I just saw the pictures from the X-rays tonight! !!!!

Not only was it a broken collarbone, but his hip/femur broken in 3 places so that his leg now has a titanium bar running through the top part, and a long titanium blade down through the femur with 2 big screws at the bottom.

My stomach ties in knots when I see it. I'm just glad he's ok.

Maybe he'll post the x-ray pics.

[Harisenbon]

Hope you get better soon, Dustin!

(I see that he's online right now. At least his typing fingers weren't damaged

[Dustin]

So last Tuesday I was riding my bike, traveling straight on Benvoulin in the bike lane, when an approaching car decided to turn left just as I was about to pass through the T intersection.

I was going around 30 km/hr and the car was close to ( i estimate ) 30-40 km/h.

I slammed on my breaks as hard as I could, and tried to turn in the same direction as the car to avoid a head on impact.

BANG I am up in the air over the car, and on the ground on my right side. No sliding, no road rash. Bonus. I clutch my hip and shoulder screaming. An off duty firefighter identifies himself and takes control until an ambulance arrives.

The car stoped but I never saw what the car was, who was driving, or anything, all I knew was that I was in pain and this was going to be a long recovery, and I was lucky to be alive.

Get to the hospital, everyone seems fairly impressed by how "minor" my injuries were. Multiple breaks in my left hip joint on the femur as well as a broken collarbone. Other than that, it was just soft tissue impact damage.

I got into emergency hip surgery that night, had a titanium bar, blade and some screws used to repair the leg. Boy was I happy to finally get knocked out, the pain was unbearable, especially when they had to examine everything, and take off the compression straps to x-ray it and MANIPULATE my other leg around it >.<

The next day I couldn't move, every time they had to move me for x-rays and stuff I was screaming in pain still. The painkillers took the edge off while I laid still but any movement was unbearable.

Over the next few days I was able to sit up, pull myself up into a walker, get into a wheelchair to move around, and now doing laps in a normal walker, maximum 50% load on my bad leg.

There are good days, bad days, as long as I stay on my medicine the pain is bearable, if I miss a dose, holy crap is it unbearable. The nurses tried to get me to just have tylenol today, and soon later I was in terrible pain, got them to give me 1 pill ( not the usual 2 ) didn't help, after a 2 hour downward spiral, them trying ice, my relaxing etc. they FINALLY gave me the second pill. Once it finally kicked in I passed out for a bit, and felt 10 times better coming to.

I'm at home now, so can control medication myself, now we'll see how recovery goes!

The broken bone

brokenleg.jpg (28.99 KiB) Viewed 2375 times

The main part of the fix

titaniumleg1.jpg (15.08 KiB) Viewed 2371 times

The joint fix, where the titanium rod meets the blade, this is the important part of the repair job, nicely done I think.

titaniumleg2.jpg (15.27 KiB) Viewed 2371 times

[Hektor6766]

It's good the reconstruction went well. Hoping for the best.

[hyperconjugated]

Terrible. I hope you'll have a fast and full recovery.

[AJBryant]

Damn.

Brah, I hope everything comes out okay. I'm sending good vibes your way.

So... um.... are you going to set off metal detectors now?

Take it EASY, man, and do what the doctors say.

[Dustin]

So... um.... are you going to set off metal detectors now?

Absolutely!

I will have to carry official medical documentation whenever I want to pass through a detector :p

[The Lady Ashuko]

Absolutely!

I will have to carry official medical documentation whenever I want to pass through a detector :p

Apart from the suckiness of the situation, that's kinda awesome. On a more serious note, I hope that you recover quickly and with as little pain as possible. I know I don't know you, but just the same.

[AJBryant]

I will have to carry official medical documentation whenever I want to pass through a detector :p

Just tell 'em you're bionic, and a poor man's Steve Austin.