The Road to Somewhere

iman29

Well-Known Member
So if you’ve seen from the BIYF thread, my season definitely took a turn for the worse. I was up at Snowball’s Chance Saturday and having a blast. I was finishing up and coming down the bottom of painted apron when I hit an icy bridge and fell off to the right onto the rocks below. As I went down I folded my m we back behind me to hopefully lessen the damage upon impact. Well my knee snapped behind me I a sound that I couldn't characterize as bone or ligament. I was helped out of the stream by the group I was riding with and told them I was ok. I said don’t worry I’ll finish up. I took a few steps after they left and my right knee collapsed and so did I onto the trail. I yelled but everyone was gone. I got back up and hobbled my way back to the gas line then to the trail by the lower reservoir and hopped back on and pedaled back to my car. I debated about turning in my cards and hanging for a bit but I had realized what I’d done. I knew I needed to get to the hospital for an evaluation. I chose Morristown over Bon Secours.

Upon arriving at the hospital, I was warned they wouldn’t do much and that thought was spot on. I got in, they took X-rays, got me some ibuprofen, gave me crutches and a brace and said go see a doctor. Yay. That was a great 3 hours wasted. Today I finally got to see not one, but two orthopedics. One group I had seen previously, and one that my buddy highly recommended.

The first doctor I saw told me that most likely I completely tore my MCL and partially tore my ACL and meniscus. An MRI would be needed to confirm but it’s a tricky surgery and a long recovery process. The second doctor I saw said it seems my ACL is gone, my MCL could be partially torn, and the meniscus may be torn but not much of a concern. Again MRI would be needed to confirm.

The worst part of the whole problem so far was the timeline of the MRI. The first doc ordered one but my insurance needs to approve it. It would take a few days so they have me a date do Monday for the MRI. Really?!?!? It’s a necessity at this point. The second doc I went to wrote me a script for an mri stat and I had it done within 20 minutes. That was amazing. So hopefully I’ll have a report with specifics as to what I did to my damn knee. Either way it seems that surgery is in the horizon, it just depends how much needs to be fixed and the recovery time. Stay tuned. I’m the meantime I have bikes for sale…

View attachment 209401View attachment 209400View attachment 209402View attachment 209403View attachment 209404View attachment 209405
Saw that comment on the BIYF thread but was afraid to ask. Damn that sucks but at least you’re still down all those lbs from last year.

Hope it’s not serious and doesn’t take too long to heal. Now you and @UtahJoe can commiserate I guess 👎🏻🙁
 

rottin'

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ryan, sorry to hear this...as a veteran of 4 knee surgeries I know the feelings and frustrations this can produce. Hoping for the best outcome my man!!
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Damn. Hope it is a quick recovery.
As mentioned, I think I met you at jungle first race back after some injury.
Start of your fatbike career
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Damn. Hope it is a quick recovery.
As mentioned, I think I met you at jungle first race back after some injury.
Start of your fatbike career

Yea that sounds about right. I hope this is the start of round 3 of "another" comeback. Unfortunately we're probably looking at 2024 or better. Am I getting too old for this shit?!?!?!
 

ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
Oh man, so sorry to hear this happened. But you know how to put in the work, and you certainly love riding your bike.

You’ll be back, wiser and stronger.

And you’re not even close to too old for this shit.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Dammit man, sorry to hear!

And ya, in your case....you weren't dying, so the best the ER is going to do for you is confirm that, give you some pain meds and tell you to see a specialist.

Having somehow damaged every part of my body EXCEPT my knees....I have no advice to offer you. But @muddybike told me more than I would ever want to know when she wrecked her ACL.....and shes all good to go again....she might have something useful to add

On the bright side...I dont believe ACL surgery involves any long periods of being non weight bearing...(WHICH IS REALLY AWESOME) like you won't be able to play basketball, but at least you should be able to move around and probably drive. I have used my 3 months so far to get my ass back to the gym, work on my diet, row with 1 leg and learn how to swim....Still sucks, but its something to do. Get well soon man
 

goldsbar

Well-Known Member
The worst part of the whole problem so far was the timeline of the MRI. The first doc ordered one but my insurance needs to approve it. It would take a few days so they have me a date do Monday for the MRI. Really?!?!? It’s a necessity at this point. The second doc I went to wrote me a script for an MRI stat and I had it done within 20 minutes. That was amazing.
That's really fast. Took me weeks to schedule an appointment, though I was in much less of an emergency situation. Heal up!
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Speedy Recovery @xc62701.

Just stay diligent on the Drs and the recovery and you'll find yourself spinning again.

Who's teaching the kids if youre laid up? Zoom classes from the hospital bed would be different.
Fortunately for me/them, this week is kinda a mess at school. They had a snow day Tuesday, and standardized testing this week, so they aren’t missing much. My goal is to get some pain relief and swelling to go down before I give it a shot again on Monday.
 

Frank

Sasquatch
I’m so sorry for you bro, but I’m 100% positive that you will rebound from this. Life has its roller coaster and you’re just along for the ride, so hang on tight and ride it out. Age is bullshit, it’s attitude that limits you so fight. We all got your six!!
 

muddybike

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
All the orthopedics will tell you that your only option is a full reconstruction. THEY LIE! Take your MRI to Dr. DeFelice at the Hospital for Special Surgery. He will give you an honest opinion on if it can be REPAIRED instead of a reconstruction (where they toss your ligaments in the trash and either harvest a fresh ligament from your knee/elsewhere on your leg or use a cadaver ligament and then they drill COMPLETELY THROUGH YOUR KNEE to run the new ligament and peg it into your bones.) It's super traumatic and will 99% lead to arthritis. Dr. Defelice has pioneered a different treatment - he repairs the acl/mcl with your existing ligaments - so if your tear is near the bone (and not mid-legament), he pegs that perfectly good tissue back onto the spot where it tore off & it's reinforced with some parachute cord (that's what it looks like). You can see it here:
HALF the recovery period! Just as strong, minimal chance of arthritis. Feels 100% now. I had surgery Aug 21, was back riding flat pedals outside by Sept 22. (this is documented in my IG account if you want to see more details). and back to pedaling in the woods By Oct 31.

My biggest issue was getting my PT to move as fast as my abilities warranted on the recovery side - he hadn't dealt with ACL repairs (only reconstruction- and you have to baby your knee for like 3 months) so he was very hesitant to give me the next level of exercises. But Dr. DeFelice provides a detailed PT exercise regiment & progress outline to give to the PT so I could point out that I'm meeting Stage X requirements, Let's move on to Stage [next].

Anyways, might be worth speaking to him!
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
MRI report came back today. ACL is gone, MCL has a grade 2/slight grade 3 tear, and the meniscus is ok. This is good as the first doc I saw was under the impression I completely tore my ACL, MCL, and meniscus. So there's some good news. Doc said I need to get the swelling down and work on range of motion in the next 3-4 weeks and then schedule surgery. Recovery will be much quicker after only an ACL revision. After that it will be lots of PT to get myself functional again. I'd like to do surgery ASAP, but if I do surgery too soon it could cause the ACL to be too tight. I got 10 pedal strokes in tonight before I got back on the couch and iced down the knee. I just had to do a little test. It still has a lot of instability, but that's very common with MCL damage. The brace is helping a ton.
 

muddybike

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
MRI report came back today. ACL is gone, MCL has a grade 2/slight grade 3 tear, and the meniscus is ok. This is good as the first doc I saw was under the impression I completely tore my ACL, MCL, and meniscus. So there's some good news. Doc said I need to get the swelling down and work on range of motion in the next 3-4 weeks and then schedule surgery. Recovery will be much quicker after only an ACL revision. After that it will be lots of PT to get myself functional again. I'd like to do surgery ASAP, but if I do surgery too soon it could cause the ACL to be too tight. I got 10 pedal strokes in tonight before I got back on the couch and iced down the knee. I just had to do a little test. It still has a lot of instability, but that's very common with MCL damage. The brace is helping a ton.
Try a second opinion with:

https://instagram.com/drdifelice?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

You might be eligible for a faster surgery and recovery timeline.
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Sorry to hear about this Ryan. Fwiw, I've found that for the 2 finger injuries I had in the past year, the billing staff in larger public'ish hospital environments tend to do the test/procedure and ask questions about billing later, while smaller private clinic-like places are more in your face about getting approvals and having money up front and such.
 
Top Bottom