The day finally arrived. Almost 30 years ago, I shattered my pelvis in a bike vs car accident. I believe I’ve talked about it here a few times.
In short, I was mountain biking back in 1992 or 1993. My friends and I had ridden our bikes from the Squaw Peak lookout, across the front of the mountain, down this wicked awesome single-track trail down to Rock Canyon Campground. We intended to ride all the way home which was over by the Utah Valley Regional Hospital in Provo.
We transitioned from the canyon to the roads above the Provo Temple. I was approaching the intersection at the top of the temple when a car turned in front of me. I could hear the passenger scream, and naturally, the driver slammed on the brakes. The result was him blocking my path and I must have hit him going 30 miles an hour.
I like to say I did a double flip with a twist and landed on my side. All I remember is my vision swooshing into a blur and thinking this is going to suck. When I hit the ground I could hear things break. I spent the next 3 weeks in the hospital, and about 10 weeks total in bed.
I started to have symptoms that my hip was deteriorating about 5 years ago. I actually thought I had a hernia. Nope, it was my hip. For whatever reason, it just hasn’t been easy to get it fixed. It has taken that long, 5 years to get myself scheduled to fix it. Well, that day is tomorrow.
I have mixed emotions. On the one hand, I am so excited to have it fixed. After it heals up I will be able to do more with my boys. I’ll be able to do more period. On the other hand, I realize it is going to hurt and I’m not very excited about that. But the good far outweighs the bad.
It is amazing that we live in such a wonderful time. Technological advances make fixing things like a hip almost the equivalent of a miracle.
I had this funny thing happen where I had to go to the hospital and have my CT scan done 3 times. The hospital where I am having the procedure done is new to doing robotic hip replacements. They were working with a Styker Mako rep to ensure everything was correct for my procedure a few days later. I was there for the third time waiting to ensure the last scan they had done would work when the Stryker Mako rep came out and talked to me about how the procedure works. They take the CT scan and in a sense overlay it on my skeletal system. When they start the procedure they use a sensor of some type to pinpoint locations so the robot and skeletal system are perfectly aligned. The Robot is designed to prevent error and place the hip with the highest degree of accuracy.
I was pretty impressed.
Until tomorrow.