Knee replacement at two years...

[Pax]

Yesterday I picked up the letter from my doc to get a temporary handicapped hang tag for my car... I alternately want to barf or cry. Sure hope the new crank things help out some.

[Sylvia]

Yesterday I picked up the letter from my doc to get a temporary handicapped hang tag for my car... I alternately want to barf or cry. Sure hope the new crank things help out some.

Pax, I know it's tough, but try to avoid allowing yourself to go there if you can. You are taking the first step in trying to sort this bike thing out.
And there are a lot of options from what you have seen. I went from not knowing the difference between a hub and a bottom bracket to learning a ton of stuff about bikes. I took it one step at a time and sorted out each piece of the puzzle as I went. I was amazed at how much stuff was available for tweaking and modifying my bike. I found a ton of stuff by searching various phrases using google and searching through bike parts for sale on ebay. I'm not saying you will have to do the same, but for me I needed to because no one person had all the answers I needed. Just take it one step at a time and focus on that one step. Try not to get scared or discouraged by imagining where this might or might not go. It is a journey, and it might be short or it might be long and it may or may not end up where you think. I don't regret my journey for a minute.


And about the handicap placard, I graduated from red temporary tag to blue permanent a few years ago, even though I have always been disabled. I pushed off getting one for as long as I could. It wasn't until I got in a cycling accident a few years ago where I fractured my tibia and (according to my doc) likely got a small tear in my meniscus, that I got my first placard. The problem was I just didn't want to wear that label, but the problem wasn't the label it was all the associations that go with it. All the associations that weren't me and never have been. And aren't anyone else either.

Hang in there!!

[Pax]

Thanks, Sylvia. My doc has been trying to get me to use a tag since 2009 and I keep refusing, but there are days now where I stay home rather than go out because of the distance in the parking lots, so it's time. Red placard coming up.

[Jean_TZ]

Pax, for additional info about pedal extenders and other means to accommodate the knee problem, you could check out the "Adaptive Cycling" forum at BikeForums.net:
http://www.bikeforums.net/adaptive-c...t-other-needs/

[Pax]

Thanks, Jean, I'll check it out.