Tripleshot Cycling

If you haven't heard Battlin Bill E. Was in a bad crash. He has broken his pelvis and will be having surgery in the next few days. Props tothe tripleshot docs for on scene & in hospital care. Hopefully Bill has a speedy recovery. Look for further details to come.

Peter

What about the cake?

The cake made it to the wedding safe & sound - Bill's sister, Beth, drove it up. Sarah was returning from Coombs at around 6:00, so I imagine has made it to the hospital by now. When I left around an hour ago, there was still no word on exactly when the surgery will be ("the next couple of days"), and Bill still hadn't been assigned a room, so he was hanging out in his curtained "room" in Emerg.

Looks like he will likely be spending the next few days at VGH.

Went 'round to see Bill this morning. Sarah was visiting.

Got the lowdown on the race. Sounds like a great showing from the boys in baby blue, with Bill and Pete working well together on the front. Bill got crossed up by a rider avoiding Gilian's slideout over a manhole cover. He rode on his backside over the pavement, and slammed into the curb, hip first. Race pace to zero. Ouch. The femur is intact, but the ball rammed up into the socket, breaking the hip..

He's in amazingly good spirits: could be the morphine or the promise of Ti plates in his hips..

He's been moved from the VGH Emerg to 5B, room 502. (For the few TripleShotters who aren't doctors, go in through the door to the left of Emergency, remind yourself that you're a cyclist and that you don't need a Tim Hortons donut, and find the elevator..)

Bill will probably be at the hospital 'til the end of the week. Surgery's scheduled for Wednesday

Anybody know if OLN will be showing any of the Giro? Bill was wondering if it might be on..

Bill--you look remarkably well, and the euphoria is suspicious. Good luck later this week. Given the issues the Health Authority has with "client" network access, you can try the following link http://www.cyclingfans.com/ who knows? it may just work

Awful news about Bill's accident... although he and I were involved in a points-shaving scheme, and I'm glad to see he takes his commitments seriously...

Does anyone know for sure what surgery Bill's having? Is it a resurfacing or a hip replacement?

I think the recovery time for a resurfacing is considerably less than a hip replacement. My recovery for each my hip replacements was about 6 weeks from operation to full weight bearing, another 6 weeks to fully functional, but obviously considerably weaker. Bill's in good shape and obviously can commit to a physio regime, so his recovery will likely be swift, although I would imagine his season is done...

Anyway, best wishes to Bill, and sympathy to Sarah for having to put up with what will amount to a 6-week "Man Cold" on steroids.... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz6DktXFvg4)

David Metal Hips Hill

I spoke to Sarah this morning and she advises that Bill is LOVING morphine! It sounds like he was able to sleep last night and now that the pain is relatively controlled he is in good spirits (but it could just be because he is high as a kite!).

I understand it is a fractured pelvis and the surgical intervention is to put a plate in the back and 2 pins in the front -Titanium of course

The surgery is set to go either 9am tomorrow or possibly Wednesday and after that is done they will have a better idea of recovery time etc. Regardless it looks like no weight bearing for a bunch of weeks but I understand that shouldnt affect his baking of goodies for us (thankfully).

Heidi saw Bill today:

"He looks fine and is in good spirits. In a room with 3 old ladies so is keeping the curtains drawn, I think afraid of what he might see!"

My brother fractured his pelvis motorcycling racing and was back before the season was done. Granted, he wasn't peddling, but I wouldn't count Bill out for a late season charge. If a stiff bicycle frame is good, then the same should be true for a pelvis - we might all be going in for titanium pelvis reinforcements before our VCL careers are done.

JT

On behalf of Sarah :

Hey gang,

Surgery is at 7:15 tomorrow morning..... good thoughts for Bill please .. and can you pass it along to anyone I forgot?

Sarah

I visited Bill again today and as you have all heard he is in remarkably good spirits. He is quite comfortable but having a hard time getting enough rest. He says those old ladies in his room snore like a pack of hounds.

To clarify the nature of his injury Bill has an acetabular fracture. His surgeon is an expert on pelvic and acetabular repair and reconstruction. I spoke to him today and he plans a posterior approach - this is least invasive and the best for recovery time. If all goes well Bill may be doing light spinning on a trainer in 6 - 8 weeks but we won't see him burning up the course again this season. No full weight bearing for 6 months.

Bill knows we are all thinking of him and wishing a speedy recovery.
In the meantime we will keep riding and hoping our own titanium remains on hold for a few years.

Here are two CT screen shots to demonstrate the nature of the injury. Bill and his surgeon gave me permission to post these. These are coronal views and you can clearly see the result of man meets curb at 40 km/hr. I'll be dropping in to visit again tomorrow.

That's not nice. I mentioned my brother's injury. He broke his pelvis at the main joint at the back - sort of like a butterfly closing it's wings (I hope that analogy helps - students sometimes think I'm crazy). That would seem worse at first, but one can understand how a metal plate would fix it in an instant. What Bill's done looks harder to fix. Best of luck buddy,

JT

Holy Cr**! Okay, before I saw the slides I was all poised to make the obvious "posterior approach" joke (less invasive??!!! yeow!)...

All the best Bill...

Damn I go away for the weekend and am feeling bad that the race is on and I'm not in it ,,,, little did i suspect how much "fun" you were all having. Very sorry to hear of your injury Bill we will be missing your pelvis in the pelaton
I have a bit of a nasty cold at the moment so will not be out to the hospital to visit this week
If there is anything that I can do to help you out at home on your discharge or thereafter pls let me know

stormin

Another update from Sarah:

I hope that you all do not mind the group email .. I wanted to let you know that before I left for the night, Bill stood up with a walker and moved about 4 steps to the left. No weight on his right foot Dr Sinclair so no need to tattle!! It was good for him mentally and physically ... They are also moving his into different bed positions so he was able to get a bit of a rest from being on his back only.

He looks great, has stopped singing Jesus Christ Superstar and back to sober Bill - quoting election stats as the election goes on! Bender you would be proud!

He is back in his same room 502 which I forgot to mention in my last email ..

I have been asked if we need anything but at this point, we are doing OK. Visits to Bill are the best thing that you can do for him. If he looks tired and I am not there to kick you out, please let him get some rest!

Speaking of that, I am off to take a sleeping pill with a glass of red wine .. seems like that kind of a day!

Sarah

Thanks for update Sarah- our lips are sealed on Bill's covert uni-pedal activities.

Sarah- there's been some discussion about giving Bill a gift certificate for Total Immersion swim workshop since he's not going to be doing much weight-bearing for months. If there's something else that would be more useful let us know.

Ack- Bill- you're probably lurking here I just realized- what do you think? Hey they're not going to give you morphine forever so you're going to have to find some way to start producing your own endogenous opioids again! Seriously- would this helpful?

Cheers,
Chris

eric.partlow wrote: and hoping our own titanium remains on hold for a few years.

Doing what I can...

Well done Bill and Sarah. While you have had a challenging year, you've both done pretty darn well responding to those challenges. Forza Billyrah! (Kinda like Brangelina, but better legs, now improved!)

Chris Watt wrote:...for Total Immersion swim workshop ...

I knew Sarah was pissed about the wedding! Isnt anyone else concerned about "total immersion"? After all total immersion = DROWNING!!!!

I am also a bit surprised by Chris so cheerfully aiding and abetting Sarah in her diabolical plan!

Pete wrote:

[quote]I am also a bit surprised by Chris so cheerfully aiding and abetting Sarah in her diabolical plan!

Au contraire Pete- titanium plates, new training plan for land and water- Bill is auditioning for Canadian "Idle's" "Six-Million Dollar Man- The New Millennium" ("...we can make him better than he was before...better...stronger...faster.")

Cheers,
Chris

Bill is actually a pretty good swimmer, due to many years hangin' with shhhhh....Triathletes!

Perhaps trying to change his stroke following the TMI swim plan is a challenge that he may not be up to at the moment. If was a total dead weight in the water with no real swimming background, I would say go for it.

How about a year pass to a rec centre of his choice?

I know he and Sarah have a pass for weights at the Selkirk Rowing Club Gym, but perhaps a yearlong pass at either Crystal (close to work) or Esquimalt (close to home) where there is both a pool and a gym.

dylan

I guess it takes Bill tumbling off his bike to motivate me to get my own username and password for the forum! Thanks for all the well wishes, visits and great ideas for a gift for Bill. He does not have wireless in the hospital so he does not know about the swim idea. The Dr did suggest swimming as the first activity he could do so a pass at the Esquimalt Pool would be a very generous and much used gift. He and Dyl can frolick in the hot tub and relive how they first met ... opps, is that too much info Dyl?

Bill was doing well today. Still sore and will most likely be in the hospital until Fri or Sat. He was up a couple of times with the help of a walker. The want him up and moving as much as he can. Eric kindly came by with copies of the XRay of the hardware in place. Pretty impressive ... Watch out million dollar man ...