An Open Letter from Ben Townley
To my fans, friends and sponsors,
I wanted to let you all know where I'm at and what's going to happen
from here. As you all know I crashed last Monday, practicing here in
Florida. When I went down my right knee dislocated and I was taken to
hospital for reduction. It all went back into place fine and there were
no complications from that side of things.
Aldon got things set up for an appointment with Dr. Tom Haney and Dr.
Chris Berg, who are orthopaedic doctors here in town. Early Tuesday
morning I had an MRI and more x-rays taken to determine if there was
any more damage from the dislocation. I was hoping for the best as the
pain hadn't been too bad overnight and the swelling wasn't that great
at all. Dr. Haney was able to have a look at the MRI straight away and
determined that my ACL, MCL, and PCL are all torn and will need full
reconstruction. The MRI was sent away for further checks to make sure
there was nothing else in there that had been missed.
On Thursday Dr. Haney met with us again and had a full plan on how the
recovery to racing will go. Following that appointment, I was
immediately fitted for a brace to keep my leg stable but let me keep my
quadracep muscles working and keep my range of motion right up until
the operation. The surgery should take place this Thursday, January 26.
The surgeons will perform a cadaver operation where they will graft
ligaments into my leg from a donor to repair the damage. Once the op is
completed I will be straight into rehab, using a machine to keep
passive movement going.
From there it will be all up to me -- the recovery will be a long time
and I will have to work hard over the next few months to rebuild my
strength and fitness in order to return to racing. As of yet there is
no time frame on when I will be back on a bike, but I will only return
to racing when I am 100 percent fit and strong and ready to win races.
I want to say thanks to everyone who has called and sent emails. It's
great to know I have all of your support. I'll keep you up to date on
how things are progressing as much as I can along the way.
I'm already on the comeback trail now and I will be back stronger than ever.
BT101
