Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The reason I became a teacher..... HOLIDAYS

So it’s been 4 weeks since I had surgery and obviously it’s a MASSIVE relief to have the problem sorted, it’s still very frustrating and slow. So laying in the hospital bed post surgery, the surgeon told me I could start riding pretty much straight away, starting at 5mins in the morning and night and to go for it. So that’s what I did.... and I built on that. The first couple of days I did 5 mins, then I built it up to 7mins, and by the end of my first week back on the bike (1week after surgery) I was at 15mins in the morning and night. It was feeling a bit sore but being back on the bike was magical and I felt like a whole new person, I was happier, and noticed a massive difference being back in the classroom.  I then decided I was up to doing 1 hour at night, out on the road at a very cruisy pace. I did this for a few nights, with a day off in between each. My hip was feeling sore because I was back on my feet all day teaching prac PE. By the third weekend the sun was a shining and my good friend Suze was down to visit.  We did 2.5 hours on Saturday and then again on Sunday, and that night my hip was pretty dam sore, so a couple of rest days were in order. Did a few rides during the week, around about the 1 hour mark and on Friday it was the last day of term. SWEET! What a massive term and full on few weeks with reports and sports days; so after a quick ride I decided to hop in the bath to relax. Upon attempting to get out of the bath I slipped and landed hard on my hip resulting in a massive amount of pain and a feeling of going to be sick as well as pass out was the result. 
Iced it and went to bed, felt it abit the next day and decided that morning I wouldn’t ride. However by the afternoon the sun was shining and the beach was looking awesome so I decided my hip was just a bit bruised and a 1 hour roll along the esplanade wouldn’t hurt it. I was wrong, it hurt. After 15 minutes of riding I knew it would be smart to turn back but as Al was a fair way up the road I decided to keep going as I knew he would be stopped up the road a bit for me. I was wrong about that too. He didn’t stop, so after 30minutes I decided to wait on the side of the road for him to turn around and wonder where I was. He didn’t. I headed home and after a 1hour ride went down to the beach for some cold water therapy. Decided I would definitely be having some rest days now. Monday morning we arrived at the surgeon for my post op appointment and waited 1 ½ hours in the waiting room, finally in to see him and he explained further what he had done. In your pelvis you have a groove where the head of your femur sits in, the ball and socket joint move together. I didn’t have a groove for some unknown reason, it was simply flat. This resulted in my femur head just banging against my pelvis, hence not much range of motion as the head of femur was catching. He also said the damage to the hip was caused by a crash/fall onto it.

He also explained the seriousness of the procedure and if I have a fall off my bike my femur head is weak that I will probably break my femur. Also, he mentioned that had I not of had this surgery I would have been looking at a falsey by the time I was 30. NOT COOL. So my plans to spend the holidays mountain biking in Castlemaine and Forrest just went out the window. DAMMIT.  He said I should still only be doing 15mins on the wind-trainer AM and PM for the next 2 weeks, then 6 weeks of road riding and THEN I can get back on the Mountain bike. OH MAN THAT SUCKS. So pretty much I’d been doing too much riding too soon and it is a 16 week recovery not a 2 week recovery like I was treating it, would have been nice to know 4 weeks ago but anyway. Over to the hospital for a CT Scan to make sure the job was done right, and a scan on my right hip to make sure that wasn’t dodge-arama. So it was turning out to be a pretty crappy day, that was until we headed out to the Giant Headquarters and then it turned into a FREAKIN AWESOMELY RAD DAY!! We were introduced to all the friendly crew there then shown some bikes, which were SWEET. Then it was out for lunch to chat about bikes, races, the tour, bikes, training and bikes. Sam Mitchell from the Hawks then joined the table much to Al’s delight. Got some sweet as gear which we were most thankful for, and I haven’t actually taken the hoody off yet it’s so comfy and looks rad, especially now we’re hanging out in Ballarat or should I say Antarctica. 

So now I’m just hanging out to demo a 29er, trying to be patient with going to the gym and swimming and making sure I do other stuff for the next 2 weeks until I can get back out there on the road. Hopefully I’ll be able to have a crack at the Scott 24hour albeit minimal training and stoked to have entered Wildside. With races such as the Surfcoast 12hr, Gravity 12hr, Forrest Festival, Highland Fling in the later stages of the year I can’t freakin wait!!!! But for now I’ll do some kayaking, yoga and other stuff to keep myself occupied.  We'll stay up late and watch Le Tour then get paid to sleep in and have an Apl De Heuz Tour party.......ah the life of a teacher..........

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