Two years later…

and i’m still recovering from my tibial plateau fracture. I thought by now I’d be back to normal (full strength and functioning of my knee) and have completed my plan of riding the Colorado Trail this Fall. Instead I was on the couch trying to figure out what the heck was causing persistent inflammation and pain. PRP made my inflammatory response even worse. After a big osteoarthritis flare up in August turning my knee into the size of a grapefruit for almost two months, I had to restart my recovery after losing a lot of muscle mass. The osteoarthritis resulting from the structural changes from the injury have made a knee replacement in my near future, or at least a complicated osteotomy to realign the knee joint and take pressure off the more affected cartilage. It’s been a challenging two years and feels like a gap in life i can’t get back. It’s hard to find positives but I’ve found a few that I focus on and try to foster. I got to spend recovery time on the couch and going on slow walks with my dog Izzy in her last year, and continue that with her brother Huck this year. I’ve learned to lower my expectations on what i’ll be able to do in life adventure wise. I was hard to satisfy, always looking for bigger days and ways to get out and explore. I never used to hike but now find it’s meditative and something I look forward to, although hiking downhill is still painful and technical trails it helps to have poles. Instead of feeling like i have a checklist of things i want to get done before i die, I look forward to getting out and experiencing any and all of the outdoors whether it’s an hour local ride or bikepacking the Colorado Trail. When injuries take you out, getting back to doing ANYthing is incredible! And that is the biggest takeaway from this injury. My knee will never be the same, and neither will I. And that’s partially a good thing.

I’m now able to ride bikes and stand up on the pedals, but mountain biking still is a bit jolting and i’m sticking to easy trails. I’ve been actually enjoying doing road rides around the Foothills on the MW-1, regaining fitness and strength this Fall. I hope to ski next week for the first time since May.