2009 Kneegate

This past Wednesday I met Tim at the Deer Grove Forest Preserve for a lunch ride. I had never been there but heard it was a great place so we got suited up and headed out. About half way into the ride i see a couple sections of puddles ahead and i decided to have some fun and ride thru them. I know that was stupid but what can i say. I get thru the first section ok but the last puddle i hit ends up being a deeper hole than i imagined. Before i know it i'm flying over the bars and flying superman style. My right knee makes impact first and then my left side.

The first thing i remember is thinking that this "trail" was not very soft. it was more like a road underneath some dirt and leaves. I stand up, look down at my knee and blood is flowing from a nice hole in my brand new pearl izumi knee warmers. I do the waddle in circles that you see whenever a rider gets up from a crash and quickly determin that i can put weight on the knee and other than the blood it seems to be ok.

I then notice that not only is the knee bleeding it is also bulging out of the hole in my knee warmer. Tim and i get back on our bikes and start heading back. I'm able to pedal ok and we ride the 25min or so back to our cars. I'm riding gingerly and although there's no internal pain in the knee i now have a softball size lump on top of the knee.


After getting back to work and getting cleaned up, i was hoping the swelling would go down and the knee would stop bleeding but it didn't. I drove myself to the Acute Care Center by my house and got it x-rayed. Thank God nothing was torn or broken. In fact i have almost no pain at all. The Nurse Practitioner was bending, pulling, and twisting my knee and i had no pain or restricted movement. The funny moment was having her call another doctor in basically saying, "you gotta see this."

I ended up walking out of there with a full leg immobilizer walking around like c3po. I was told to wear the brace thru this weekend and i should be fine unless the swelling doesn't go down.

I wore the brace until yesterday. I couldn't take it anymore. walking around like C3PO was messing with my lower back and hips. Now i'm just waiting for the stifness to go away. I'm hoping i can be riding by tuesday. we'll see.