| The Major Damage |  | | Left leg- severed petella tendon |
Hello everyone and welcome to my website I am one of Australia's elite women road cyclists, I ride with a professional team in Europe and I am also a member of the Australian Institute of Sport and the New South Wales Institute of Sport.
It's been 18 months since the tragic accident in Germany, July 2005 where an out of control car took the life of my AIS team mate Amy Gillett and seriously injured myself, Lousie Padgett(nee Yaxley), Lorian Graham, Kate Nichols and Alexis Rhodes..
I suffered some major injuries and I'll list them bellow:
- Severed left petella tendon
- Bone missing in the left knee
- Broken right leg
- Shattered left hand
- Collapsed lung
- Broken left ribs
- Cuts all the way down my right arm
- Left leg was initially to be amputated (ooch) and that's about it....
As you can see it was pretty bad but I am still determined to achive what I had planed through my cycling career. Life hasn't been easy on the road to recovery and I'm still not there yet, I have intense physio, massage and every now and then I get my head read to keep me sane..... hahaha Over the last 18months I have had 6 operations but was left with one major decision... My orthopedic surgen, DR Micheal Dixon told me I had 3 options: Ride with pain, retire or get a cartilage transplant. August 10th 2006 I went for the cartilage transplant as retirement wasn't an option because I have been riding since I was 3 years old when I started in B.M.X. This was meant to be a 3 month recovery period but I took my own advice and started training in week 6 much to my physio's (Andrew Hunter) disgust.. Dr Dixon shook his head at me and said " as long as it doen't hurt" . 'So far so good"
January 16th 2007 I raced in Adelaide, it was the first time since the accident in July 2005. That wouldn't have been possible without the help of the following people: - Australian Insitute of Sport staff
- NSWIS
- Skins (recovery)
- Rudy Project (eye wear)
- Mannatech Australia (vitamins)
- FRF Couriers (Colonago bike)
- BONT
- Dr Dixon
- Andrew Hunter (physio)
Last but not least.... MY FAMILY & BOYFRIEND (they rock) I will keep you all up to date with my diary entries about the racing and how my body is handling the pressure of the elite cycling world with dutch PRO team, Vrienden Van Het Platteland.
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