Rider Recovery Stories for inspiration

[AZJW]

Probably everyone has had a time when they couldn't ride due to an injury or a medical condition.  Bike related injuries suck, but at least we got hurt having fun, right?  I'm convinced my past broken bones while riding injuries and current back (Sciatica) issues are small potatoes to what some of you've been through.  The " inspiration " for this thread came from messages I exchanged with a forum member about my not riding recently due to pain. His story was a crushed spine resulting in leg paralysis requiring an extensive surgery to repair, but it was successful and is riding today.

 

Another was a conversation with a family friend, Neil Fergus, who was quite the desert racer in his day, who had his T1-T4 fused ( at age 75)  to fix his back issues. He rides pretty much every day and speaking with him last week at age 91, he's still at it!  http://thebannerisup.district37ama.org/alumni/nfergus-bio.htm

 

 Anyway, stories like these inspire me to do the hard work to get back into riding shape and knowing I'm not alone in this helps keep me going. 

 

What or who was your inspiration to get back in the saddle? 

[Ray Ride4life]

I was lucky, crashed a few times hard at speed with no injury but the time i fell at a stand still i broke a collar bone.
Sat within 3 weeks on the bike again because the father of a friend died and he wanted to be guided by bikes from the funeral home to the cemetery, never told my now ex that i went.
The other involuntary dismounts just had some bumps and bruises and the one accident everybody was convinced that i couldn't have survived i had nothing at all (since then i know how people look when they think they see a ghost).
Only discomfort a had was when i felt muscles the next day i never knew i had and that took 2 weeks to completely go away. 

[AZJW]

Ray, I concur.   Some of the toughest pain I've encountered was due to muscular contusions and not from broken bones.

[Landshark]

I've had many get offs.  But three of them were injury causing.  Two times I've had "left turn in front of me" motorists take me out.  Both times the bike I was riding was totaled.  One of these "lefts" gave me a broken ankle and broken ribs  The third one was wiping out on a gravel road where I did an endo and over the bars I went.  Concussion, broken ribs and broken ankle.   

Now I take care to try and prevent an accident and not get all broken up.  So far so good.

[AZJW]

Bumped for more stories.