So I never updated this. 9/22/14 I wrecked the bike, I was heading down a back road, got too trigger happy with the throttle and crested a hill that lays right into a right hand banked corner. Needless to say carrying too much speed over the hill and attempting to push into a corner the bike lost traction and went down. The bike crushed my left foot/ankle between the road and the frame and ground up the bones of my ankle and foot. The bike skidded on it's left side into a ditch that is backed by a rock wall/hill and the top of the tank and gauges were smashed in. After the bike and I separated I tumbled, hit my head and slammed into the rock wall/hill sitting upright. I immediately tried to get up and get to the bike to shut it off, my foot quickly let me know that was not happening at all. Funnily enough a driver who saw it happened rushed to me to have me sit back down, she was actually an Orthopaedic nurse, she checked me over and helped me get me shoe off while waiting for the ambulance. I ended up declining the ambulance, the responding sheriff took me home where my friends I was riding with followed us to, and from there they drove me in my car to the ER. To make matters worse I had just been laid off and my severance health insurance expired 9/25/14.
**Funny story, a girl I had been talking to on Tinder was actually an EMT who showed up in the ambulance, she pretended not to know who I was. We talked about it afterwards and got a good laugh out of it.
The ER told me I had just broken some bones and put me in a soft cast and sent me away the evening on 9/22 with an appointment for a local ortho a few days away (same practice the lady who stopped for me was at!). The ortho did X-Rays and said I had really messed my foot up and referred me a specialist ortho for a few days out, it was 9/25 or by this point. Knowing I was most likely going to need surgery some time in the near future I called up Anthem and signed up for the best plan I could ($300/month), it was slated to begin 10/1/15. I posted a gear PSA to Facebook about what had happened along with the X-Ray pictures and my cousin who is a nurse and works with the specialist ortho saw them and showed them to him. He called me on the morning of 10/1 and asked if I could come in that morning for an impromptu visit, he saw my X-Rays and noticed my foot has been dislocated for 10 days at this point in time and wants to do surgery immediately.
I got to their office and they did some X-Rays to confirm my foot was all sorts of messed up. Three broken metatarsals, one cuboid completely obliterated and my talus was fractured and the neck of it was broken off, which is super bad news. He was pissed the ER let me crutch away and spend ten days with a dislocated foot as I now ran the risk of the Talus suffering from blood loss which could lead to painful bone collapse and would need a Total Joint Replacement. He told me to leave his office and go check into his hospital right away, we were doing surgery that night. As soon as I left his office I called Anthem to ensure I was covered effective THAT day as I was going for surgery now, sure enough I was (Thank GOD for no more pre-existing conditions).
Six hour surgery and ended up with 7-8 screws, a few plates, a bone transplant to hold things together and some fused bones. 2 weeks in a soft cast (crutches), 3 months in a hard cast (crutches), a month or two in a walking boot and some Physical Therapy sessions. I have maybe 80% of up and down motion, at best 25% of side to side motion, still have permanent numb spots from the soft tissue damage and it still aches and hurts a lot especially if I'm up on it frequently. The total Ortho/Hospital bill prior to insurance was a little over $90,000, after insurance I owed less than 5 grand. My cousin still tells me that the ortho brags about my case all the time and it will be the kind he will use at conferences and such as my foot was that ****** up, and she swears I'm lucky to be able to walk at all.
The first thing I did after getting back from staying with my parents for 2 weeks after the surgery was bring the bike inside to protect it from the winter. The bike needed a new tank, bars, mirrors, gauges, tail fairing, passenger peg and some other odds and ends. Because I had just been laid off when the wreck happened and my fiancee and I had split in July I was forced to move home to live with my parents for a while and pay off bills (still there now). The bike didn't get back on the road until about August, and even then it's not quite as pretty right now, but it runs. I ended up missing a parking lot day (setting up cones to practice drills and such) with my riding club, but they called me up and put me on speaker and passed me around to remind me I was missed
If you don't like feet or are squeamish about injuries. Stop scrolling here.
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See that red thing in the ditch up there.... that's the bike
My friend Ellen was following me on her Ninja 250 when it happened.
That extra lump is not supposed to be there.
But naw man, I got this, keeping spirits up! Adrenaline was still going haha
My ride in the back of the Sheriff's car home, he was cool and even ran the lights and sirens when I asked him to!
Still keeping spirits up and joking with the ER Staff! A large group of my riding club came to see me in the ER as word travels fast.
These next ones are from 10/1/14 the day of the surgery
I hadn't seen my foot/ankle in like 3 months by the time to hard cast came off and it was time to remove the staples.
The end result :
