We are asking donations to help pay medical bills, regular bills, and some food money. Living on 60% of regular pay with short-term disability has been difficult. My last short-term disability payment was January 8th and I have maxed out the allotted time for the policy. I do not have long-term disability and hoping to return to work. However, if I cannot return to work then we are out of luck and out of money. We have a total of $2.12 in savings. Our savings have been depleted trying to keep up with regular bills on top of medical bills. We humbly ask for donations to help us pay for some of the medical bills and some help with transitioning back into the workforce (hopefully).

 

This is one of those “traumatic events that change your life.” Before this even I had never broken a bone or gone through any type of surgery. The diagnosis was “closed displaced comminuted plateau fracture of shaft of right tibia and closed transverse fibula fracture.” The surgeon said, "it's the worst fracture he has seen in his 17 years of being a doctor." 

On July 10th, we just got our mountain bikes back from a tune up and it was either go mountain biking or go fishing. We decided to go mountain biking to do a test ride. We picked a trail we were very familiar with and that we had even gone on several night rides with a group on previous occasions. We felt safe and familiar with the trail. Our close friend Andrea volunteered to watch Johnny for a few hours while we went on our adventure.

Just like every other ride before I took a before picture that I was going to post after the ride. About 1.5 miles into the trail, my front tire hit a slippery root. I tried to bail my bike to the left, as I fell to the right. My shoes were connected to the bike via clips and usually they clip out easy. I don’t know why they did not disconnect. The bike was still connected to me and came back to the right where I was falling. The handlebars twisted and my right leg was caught between the handlebars and the frame of the bike. At this point my whole weight landed on the frame causing my leg to break. Saying it “broke” is a nice way of saying what happened. I heard and felt a “pop.”

Jansen (my husband/prior EMT medic) came rushing down because he was a head of me. He heard the “pop” and me say “something’s wrong,” and quickly got the bike off of me and my camelback under my head. I was definitely in shock at this point. He gave me a once over and asked if I could get off the trail (in case some other riders happened by), it was quickly determined that I could not move. At this point, it was clear that I had two knees on one leg. I could not straighten my leg either. Jansen called 911 while I called Andrea to tell her we would be a little longer than a few hours because I broke my leg. Jansen then had to leave me on the trail to meet the medics to guide them to me because the trails were not named/labeled.

On the way to the trailhead, he ran into two other bikers and sent one to wait with me. There is an access road for the trail system, and we were about half a mile from that. We had to wait for the Ranger for the park to come open the gate to let the ambulance through. However, the ambulance could not drive on the access road because the road was muddy, and they could get stuck. The rescue team finally reached me on the trail and after giving me some pain medication, strapped me to a backboard and hauled me out. It was not a fun trip for me. They also had to stop halfway for a break. It is hard work lugging a human with a broken leg through rough terrain.

They got me as close to the Ranger vehicle as possible and helped me stand on one leg and I hopped into the passenger seat. The Ranger vehicle then took me down the access road to where the ambulance was, and I hopped to the gurney. Good thing was the hospital was less than 5 minutes from where we were riding. The ER nurse was really nice and tried to save as much clothes and bike gear as possible. She also made sure we had everything we needed. There was a bet with the EMTs that I had just dislocated my knee. They were wrong. From the X-rays, my tibia was shattered, and I also fractured the fibula. The break was an inch and a half below my knee.

Surgery was needed to reset the bones and straighten my leg. I was put into an external fixation where they screwed this device into my bones to help me keep the bones in place while the swelling went down in my leg. This device was only supposed to be on for two weeks. At the follow-up to schedule the second surgery, the swelling had not gone down enough to put the plates and screws that would replace the external fixation. I was lucky that the fracture was not an open one and I was lucky to keep my leg because of how close the break was to my knee and how serious the fracture was to both bones.

I was in the external fixation for 3 weeks. Then I underwent the second surgery for the plates and screws. The surgery was supposed to be only 4 hours and it took almost 8 hours. According to the CT scan before the first surgery, the tibia bone had five fragments, however they found more during the surgery. I still could not put weight on my leg after the surgery. I was cleared for weight bearing at the beginning of November and had to learn how to walk again. I also had to retrain my brain to recognize my right leg again. I met my goal of walking with a cane before Christmas. I still have a limp and a long way to go before I am “100%” normal. The doctors think that I might not be 100%, but pretty close to it.

 

There have been issues with insurance because my policy has a hard cap of 20 sessions for Physical Therapy. Most of November and all of December I did not have Physical Therapy. I had to work extra hard on what the Physical Therapist showed me to meet my goal of walking.

 

I have been keeping myself busy with school to become a medical biller and coder. I have also managed to keep a 4.0 throughout this process and made the Dean’s list twice! And recently got the OK to drive. I am at 81 degree bend in my leg and can move my ankle to “neutral” or 90 degrees. After the second surgery I could not bend my leg or flex my ankle. I know I have come a long way from the accident. I still have a long way to go. I do not have long-term disability and have been just meeting regular bills on the 60% short-term disability gives. Short-term disability runs out and I do not qualify for state long-term disability yet. If I do not get the okay to return to work, I honestly don’t know what we will do.

 

We could not have survived this life altering event without the help of our amazing friends! Seriously, thank you. From the Meal train started by my friend Michele so Jansen wouldn’t have to worry about cooking food. To my mom who flew out to help us with littleman and taking care of me and my one leg. (Worst CNA EVER! Lol) AND stayed an extra week when my second surgery got pushed back. And my sister Shayla and my friend Maria for flying across the country to help us out. To Amy who helped me watch littleman when Jansen had to work weekends at a second job. We truly appreciate every one that helped, donated time, food, or money, or just came to hang out.