Dustin's bad luck. :(

[chikara]

Glad to hear the surgery was a success and that you are on the road to recovery. I hope it is not too long a road.

Thanks for the interesting x-ray pics. Not quite calendar material though.

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

At today's prices a $6M man would be a poor man's bionic man.

[AJBryant]

True... the economy's not what it used to be.

[ss]

Dustin, I am sending my healing wishes your way, I feel your pain!
Feeling better? Good fortune will come in the wake of narrow escape from danger, hang in there! Take good care and have a speedy and full recovery.

[JapanCrazy]

I'm sending healing energy your way man. As a fellow fast biker, I totally feel for you. Some people just don't think before they do. I'm one of them, but not when I'm going that fast. Especially because I don't wear a helmet (my head's so big, they usually feel really awkward).

Get well soon man. My brother's had bones sticking out of his body before, so I'm seriously wishing you all the best.

[Dustin]

Figured I should update everyone here!

I started Physio on monday, and the PT was surprised by how well I got through the accident without injuries. Looking at the bruising and pain I still had, the upper body impact was just under the pecs, so the fact that my collarbone broke and i didn't cave in my ribcage and puncture a lung is actually pretty amazing. She was also surprised I was able to avoid and real neck/back/head injuries thanks to defensive driving habits that kicked in during the accident.


PT was also very happy with my recovery so far, everything I've done on my own so far has been great, and instead of seeing her 2-3 times a week, I'm only going back in 3 weeks to make sure I'm still progressing.

Start pool therapy next week, should get me "walking" in there sooner thanks to the buoyancy.

See the doctor today for a post-op check to make sure the bones are all healing up properly, and I will update when I know more from that

[AJBryant]

Get 'em, man!

Doing better, Dustin?

[Dustin]

I am doing a bit better.

I am making good progress with my physio, and I started going to the gym and pool to get on the bike trainer ( very easy modes so far ) and do some walking in the water.

It's nice doing stuff in the water cause the dead leg weighs less and it's easier to lift and stuff.

I'm walking with just a cane now as opposed to a walker, crutches or being stuck in a wheelchair, which is nice too!

2 1/2 weeks til I see a doctor again to see how the bone's healing up.
Wish me luck

[tōkai devotee]

Wow, Dustin, that's terrible. I hope you're doing better day by day. Just baby steps at t his stage I guess. Good luck!

This just goes to show that you never know what's going to happen. You go out on your bike one day, thinking everything's fine, then land in hospital with broken bones and weeks/months of therapy. Life is so unpredictable and fragile.

[AJBryant]

Baby steps?

Dustin, are you up to that, yet?

Seriously, guy, are you following the doctors' orders to the letter? They'll only save your spot on "Dancing with the Stars" for so long...

[Dustin]

Baby steps?

Dustin, are you up to that, yet?

Seriously, guy, are you following the doctors' orders to the letter? They'll only save your spot on "Dancing with the Stars" for so long...

Not quite up to baby steps, not without the cane anyways.

A bit of pain today, might have over exerted myself yesterday.

I am following the orders as best as I can though and things are overall progressing much quicker than expected

[AJBryant]

Well, don't overdo it.

You want to push yourself, but don't OVER push. Ya know what I mean.

We're all pulling for you.


(Man, what is it with all this pushing and pulling?)

[Infidel]

Oh My. Still working through the backlog of messages and I see something like this.

I totally feel for you. I'm a biker too. And this brings to mind my own ordeal with an idiot driver that put me in the hospital. Although I think I posted about it at the time, I'll just give a quick retell.

I was on the way to work crossing the street, not at a corner, but about 200 yards or so from the nearest corner, when I look over to my right and see a car pull around the corner and head my way. Instead of slowing down, they actually sped up as they came right at me. Seeing them speed up, I decided to vacate the road asap, but would have to turn towards the car to get to the nice sloping driveway that I normally used. Since they were speeding up and I could hear the motor roar, I decided to just beeline for the road edge. As I approached the curb at full speed, I tried to pop my wheel, but since I'd never tried to pop my wheel over a curb at full speed, I misjudged something, and didn't pop the tire high enough, I didn't even see the telephone pole.

So I wake up about 30 minutes later with paramedics above me. My injuries were a concussion, and two shoulders that now have rotator cup injuries due to the 40-50lbs of Japanese books in my backpack. Otherwise, my helmet absorbed almost all of the impact. It could have been a lot worse. As it was, they demanded I go to the hospital and get a CT scan, they said it was standard procedure on anyone suffering a concussion for so long.

So no, I can't say I feel all your pain, but it could have easily been me eating through a tube and living out of a wheelchair for the rest of my life. So I totally feel for you and hope you continue to get better.

[Dustin]

I am sorry to hear that! We are both very lucky indeed! ( That we're relatively ok that is )

I may as well update here!

Few weeks ago I got another x-ray, finally some bone growth in the femur (yay!)
Not enough for full weight bearing, but we'll see in 3 more weeks after my next x-ray.

New problem has crept up, some screws near my knee are now bothering me, it's limiting my time on the bike, stairs, all kinds of things, not sure how it will effect me long term ( they WILL be coming out in about a year or so ). I'm getting more daily pain in the hip, hopefully it's healing pains because fresh tissue is being stressed

I AM still walking though ( weighing heavily on a cane ) with some hard limits to weight and time, and getting on a bike at the gym, some pool time, range of motion is excellent, and I am getting a lot of my reflex speed back. Now it's just this pain and bone growth to deal with, then full muscle strength rehab

[AJBryant]

You know, you could make a fashion statement with a bitchin' cool walking stick.

Glad to hear things are coming along. I hope you're drinking plenty of milk! (Or, better yet -- you have the perfect excuse for pounding ice cream!)