sticks and stones may break my bones... (and so may road signs)

So, though I have been hurting quite a bit from my crash, I guess I did a bit more damage than even I thought. Finally got my stitches out--YEAH! I get to enjoy my new pool and take a shower like a normal person again. I still can't put weight on or bend my left knee at all though. I went to the orthopedist, and my xrays were impressive. The cut on the side of my knee was so deep it actually showed up on the xrays! Because I couldn't bend my knee, they thought maybe I tore my meniscus or something. An MRI revealed that my meniscus is fine... HOWEVER, I have a broken femur. So, I guess that explains the amount of pain I've been in. I still can't believe I walked around on that for 2 weeks. I chipped off about 15 cm of the bottom of my femur right where it meets my knee. Unfortunately, that means my cycle season is over. I'm really bummed that I'm going to miss my century next month, but the good news is that all my accomodations and flight are booked so I'm still going to go to Hawaii and cheer my team on and enjoy a short vacation. So a month from now, though I may have a broken leg, at least I'll be laying on a beach in Waikiki!Here are some of the gorey pics of my leg the last few weeks. (A few people have actually asked to see them

my stitches

imprint of the road sign on my right thigh

makeshift stop sign over my bruise to remind me that i didn't "stop"

crash and burn

Soooooo... I'm riding a friends bike until I replace mine (mine was stolen a few weeks ago). Anyhow, went to my team training ride Saturday and had my first real crash. Not fun. I heard a commentator for the Tour de France talking about crashes. Someone asked what it felt like to crash. His reply was that is was like being stripped down to your underwear and thrown out of a moving car at about 50 miles per hour. Now that I've experienced it, I think he was pretty much right on!So, a bee was buzzing around in the side of my helmet. I'm allergic, so I started swatting at it and lost my focus on the road for a minute. In that second, I must have hit some gravel or something on the road, lost control of my bike and took out a road sign (or maybe it took me out...). Ended up propelling my body around a reflector post on the side of the road a few times- bending the sign in half before falling about 10-15 ft down an embankment in the side of the road. My right leg that first got the impact of the sign has a black impression of it on my thigh. Somehow my whole body got wrapped around the sign and I filleted the side of my left knee on it. When all was said and done I ended up with about 20 stitches in the side of my knee, a knee brace and crutches, and a lot of bruises and road rash. But in the bigger scheme of things I guess I'm pretty lucky. The doc was amazed I was awake and conscious so I guess I'm really lucky.