Category: Comeback from Hip Surgery – Diary

Well, my TX Chainring Massacre race with the A’s was going pretty good. . . . until it wasn’t 🙁

I hung on with the A leaders for a bit, but eventually got popped and settled in with a strong chase group. Kim Petite (Papa John’s Pro Cycling) and Kae Takeshita (Panaracer Pro Cycling) had hung in with the A leaders a bit longer than I had, so I was sitting 3rd for the bulk of the race. The chase group I was with caught Kae with ~20? miles to go, and I was gunning hard for 2nd place, with an anticipated worst case scenario of 3rd. . . . and then, with 5 miles remaining in the 65 mile race, we took a corner a tad hot, and several in my group (myself included) washed out. I remember my exact thought process as my wheels were sliding out from under me. . .

It was a really minor wash out, and I wasn’t even remotely thinking about how much this was going to hurt or about the actual ground impact at all. It was such a minor, run of the mill slide out, that I was already thinking about how quickly I could pop back onto my bike and chase back on before I even hit the ground. As soon as I stopped sliding I went to pop up, and immediately knew something was horribly wrong. I had the exact same searing/shooting/unbearable pain radiating from my left hip that I had experienced back on August 26th when I fractured my Iliac Crest in the sprint finish pileup at the Driveway Series. I knew right away that I’d broken my hip again – there was absolutely zero question in my mind whatsoever. I assumed at the time that I’d re-fractured the same spot, but X-rays later revealed that my original fracture was still 100% fully intact and completely unaffected and in no way contributed to this new injury, which turned out to be a break of my femoral neck.

Back to the actual crash though – as soon as I realized I was fucked and that there was absolutely NO WAY that I was getting back on my bike, I immediately encouraged everyone else that had wiped out along with me and was scrambling to get back onto their bikes to JUST GO. I didn’t want anyone losing position because of me, and I was pretty sure I could drag/hobble myself and my bike to the edge of the road and use my cell to call for help. Two of the guys would have none of it though, and insisted on staying to help me get to the side of the road. In hindsight, I’m really, really glad that they did, because I don’t think there is any way that I could have done it on my own. I was in excruciating pain. Once seated on the side of the road, I called my husband at the start/finish line, and he alerted Kevin (race director), who sent his wife out to pick me up in their truck. The guys that had helped me relocate offered to stay with me until a ride arrived, but there was absolutely nothing further that they could do to help me, so insisted that they finish their race, and after arguing with me for a few minutes, they realized that I was more stubborn and hard-headed then both of them combined, and reluctantly rode away.

I spent ~30 minutes on the side of the road waiting for my ride to arrive, and was trying to do anything possible to keep my mind off the pain or thoughts about my season going down the shitter. . . I was positioned very visibly at a sharp turn in the course, so I took on the role of cheerleader and course guide, yelling to riders who were going to miss the turn, and cheering on those who looked like they could use an encouraging word. I actually had a good bit of fun sitting there in the sun, and was glad for the distraction 🙂

When Jan (Kevin’s wife) arrived with their pickup truck, it was clear that getting into it was going to be quite a production. . . I could barely move, and at this point could put absolutely no weight at all into my left leg, or twist my torso at all without pain so severe that it brought a scream from me that I hope to never hear again. Fortunately, two other guys saw our trouble, and stopped to help load me into the truck. Being unable to twist or move, I ended up riding the ~25 minutes back to the start/finish on bumpy gravel roads in the passenger seat, facing the rear of the truck, with my knees on the edge of the seat, my face plastered against the headrest, and my butt up against the dashboard/windshield. . . I’m sure that we were QUITE the sight!

We made it back to the Start/Finish, and Jan Bennet, Kevin, Jan, and my hubby Jamie helped get me moved from the truck to the floor of our van. This was also quite the production, and took about an hour with no shortage of dirty words and screams slipping from my lips in the process . . . once settled in the van, Jamie and I decided that we’d drive the ~3.5 hours back to Austin, and go to an ER close to home. As I mentioned, I was positive that my hip was broken, and assumed that I’d likely be required to stay overnight (although I was really hoping that I’d escape surgery again).

The 3 hour ride from Valley View to Georgetown was one of the most painful 3 hours of my life so far. EVERY bump in the road, change in momentum, or sway of the van caused me to shift my body weight, resulting in another surge of excruciating pain. By the time we got to Georgetown, Jamie made the executive decision to go ahead and call uncle for me rather than drive the additional ~45 minutes to Austin. We checked into St. David’s Georgetown, where they took X-rays, started an IV with pain meds (OH THANK GOD), and determined that I had a displaced fracture of the Femoral Neck that would require surgery. They recommended that I be transferred by EMS to St. David’s Round Rock so that Dr. Laverty (one of the best surgeons/hip specialists in Austin) could perform my surgery the next morning.

Upon arriving at St. David’s RR, Dr. Laverty reviewed my X-rays and discussed my options with me. He said that there were 3 ways this could go: 1) A Hip Replacement 2) A hip repair with Open Reduction Surgery 3) A hip repair with Closed Reduction Surgery. He explained that a hip replacement was not a viable option for someone of my age and activity level, because the metal of the ball would wear my socket out, and I would likely require 4-5 more hip replacements throughout my life, which is obviously not an option. He then explained that he was going to attempt to repair the break with a closed reduction surgery, which would include a ~3 inch incision, and screwing the femur back to the ball joint so that it could heal, but he also said that it was likely that he’d have to make a bigger incision and cut through some muscles and tendons in an Open Reduction Surgery in order to make the necessary repairs. Obviously, recovery time after a Closed Reduction Surgery is much less than required after an Open Reduction Surgery, so we were all keeping our fingers crossed that it could be repaired via Closed Reduction, but also well aware that this wasn’t very likely.

Surgery was performed Sunday morning around 10am, and I woke up around Noon to the WONDERFUL news that he was able to complete the surgery with a Closed Reduction! 🙂

Rather than re-type all of the details of my first 3 days (spent in the hospital), I’ve embedded my FB updates from this time period below.