together and they weren't right."
The pain was a constant but espe-
cially flared up when he rode: "Definitely
2018 was a tough season for racing and
2019, things still hurt quite a bit. It was a
struggle every day to go ride because it
always hurt. Working out hurt. You don't
realize how much your wrist is involved
in everything you do. There were a lot of
times when I probably could've given up
due to pain and suffer-
ing, but I wasn't going to
stop chasing my dreams
for a little bit of pain.
"It definitely has made
me mentally tougher."
Modern medicine, as
well as exploring alterna-
tive healing processes,
combined with his
mental outlook to help
turn things around:
"The whole time, I kept
optimistic, hoping I could
keep the mobility in my
wrist. I ended up doing
stem-cell injections and
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 4, 2022 P51
behind Shirey, and I was like, 'Shoot,
I've got it going on this year!' Everything
felt good and this whole year, basically,
everything just lined up. I was really con-
fident in my bike; the suspension setup
was really nice and my training program
was spot-on. I knew I could do it, no mat-
ter what.
"Basically, this year, everything went
perfectly, and I was able to wrap it up."
From not knowing if he would even be
able to keep his hand in 2017 to winning
the championship in 2021 was quite a
journey. "It broke my scaphoid in half,
and basically took the ulna and radius
bones and stuck them out through my
skin," Wasson said. After initial treat-
ment in Alamogordo, New Mexico, he
was transferred to a hospital in El Paso,
Texas, where he underwent surgery
to rebuild the wrist and save his hand,
remaining for three weeks during which
time he underwent two more surgeries—
operations complicated since Wasson
refused to have the wrist fused. A wound
was left open for two months to allow for
cleaning and drainage, with an exter-
nal fixator holding bones in place while
things healed.
"They were concerned because it was
an open wound, and there was sand
and stuff in it, so they kept me in the ICU
there. When the doctor came in, he laid
out all my options of things that were
possibilities—there was a possibility of my
hand not staying on my body because of
infection or the surgery not working right.
"It was nerve-wracking, to say the
least."
He admits that opting against fusion
may have prolonged the healing process:
"That was probably the reason for a lot
of my pain that I had in 2018 when I had
to stop because the bones were rubbing
"I had a ton of
confidence going
in, my bike was
working really
good, and I just
was going so fast.
I kind of jumped
off this little sand
dune and basically
went from 60
miles an hour
to stopped."
