After two cycling accidents the start of each of the last couple of years were not good, so I was looking forward to an injury-free 2015. Fat chance!
I got up in the dark early on Tuesday morning as I couldn't sleep due to a ongoing back condition. Didn't want to disturb my wife so I grabbed my clothes and crept out of the bedroom to dress downstairs. In the dark I slipped barefoot on the edge of the first step and fell down 13 stairs to the first floor landing. To stop myself falling head first I threw myself backwards and ended going down on my side with my right knee bent underneath me. Terrific pain in my right knee caused me to yell out and almost faint with the pain, which, ironically, really disturbed my wife! Ambulance came fairly soon and rushed me to hospital. They diagnosed a ruptured quadricep and, on Wednesday morning I had an op carried out to re-fasten the right quadricep to the knee, plus tidy up some tears in the muscle, I believe, although my memory of the talk with the doc is a bit hazy.
The op was deemed a success although the initial aim to do it while I was awake under an epidural was changed when I still felt pain as they started the op, so I had to be knocked out anyway. Now that the effects of the initial anaesthetics have worn off I am still in some pain but, drugged and trussed up in a full length leg brace, with two crutches, I came home today.
The recovery prognosis is pretty good but the recovery period is going to be long. Estimates are for two weeks doing virtually nothing but keeping my knee straight in the brace, and then, depending on progress starting PT to increase movement and strength. There are mixed estimates of when I am likely be able to do some light, or stationary, cycling of around 3 - 5 months.
This was my first overnight stay in hospital for 60 years and I was the only patient on the short-stay ward that didn't go in with a bag of their own regular drugs, which is not going to harm my recovery.
I am not going to ask for medical advice on a cycling forum, but am interested in the experiences of other in the 50+ who may have had the same injury, as to the recovery times they went through.