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Bonanza,

I take it you are thinking of my "location" where it says: "Laying in bed with my damaged leg up...".

I have been bicycling a lot this last year, at least 3 times a week to stay in shape, besides other training. Mostly on dirt tracks and gravel roads, or "spinning" indoors at a gym depending on the weather.

In mid July I was out bicycling, and as usual wearing "click in" bike shoes (with Shimano SPD pedals). I’ve crashed numerous times before, and the pedals have loosened as they should. However, due to the angle I fell this time, they didn’t let go of the left shoe. Luckly I was very close to the house where my wife and children were when this happened...

So there I was, laying on my back before I knew what had happened, besides hearing a nasty cracking sound. My left foot was literally twisted 90 degrees to the left, with my heel pointing out the 90 degrees out to the right!

I start to call out for for my wife, who thankfully heard me after a while and came running down to where I was. I send her off to call for medical help, and then we start the long wait, while I stayed down on my back, holding my leg up from the ground.

Since this happened on an island, the ambulance personnel has to first drive to the nearest marina, and then get picked up by an rescue boat, and then drive out to where we were. This took an hour. And was quite uncomfortable for me while I was waiting. When they eventually arrived, they gave me a shot of morphine, but due to the nature of the injury, couldn’t wait for the drug to kick in before twisting my foot back into place (at least almost all the way). This was because the danger of virtually no blood flow to the foot, due to the angle the foot was in. Which could have lead to the foot dying, and having to be amputated. When they did this, I’m surprised you didn’t hear me scream and curse all the way around the world! The ambulance personnel had never actually seen a foot twisted so far over, and I could see that they were kind of worried. Finally I was lifted up and carried to the boat, and eventually got to the hospital where they did a final adjustment to get the foot totally straight.

Then later in the evening I was operated on, which I think took about 3-4 hours. They put in a metal plate, screws and even some metal wire (Which I haven’t seen done before). The next day I was sent in a new ambulance up to Oslo, where I stayed in the hospital for a week before being sent home. I was then for the most part confined to bed for a couple of months, but it didn’t make much of a difference to me since the pain was rather intense, and I didn't feel up to doing much anyway.

I'm still forced to use crutches, and will need them for quite some time it seems since I am not able to walk properly. I also can't keep my leg down for more than a few hours at a time, before I have to lay back and elevate it a bit. The pain can still be quite intense. Even though it's been 4 months now since the accident. I go to physiotherapy 3 times a week, and will in addition be starting water therapy with a physiotherapist once a week at the hospitals heated swimming pool next Thursday. It looks like this will need to continue for quite a long time.

They predict that it’ll take at least a year to recover fully. If it recovers fully. They’re not quite sure, but I certainly hope it does. I know of some other people who have had similar ankle injuries, and they've used 2-3 years before they could walk normally again. And some of them needed several operations.

So it's safe to say that things could be going better.

Erik