Not just fast crashes hurt

[Glenn_M]

Three weeks ago went out for a ride with the kids in the school holidays. Lovely sunny day, quiet ride on local bike trails....
One moment of not paying attention to where my wheels were and looking at my mad 8yo son on his BMX. Daughter behind my bike on a tag-along shifted her weight, front wheel into a small gutter drain. Me arse-over. Couldn't have been going more than 5km/h.

Ambulance ride. 48hr wait for swelling to reduce prior to surgery. Nice collection of Ti plates & screws as souveniers of the event. Another 3 days waiting for swelling to come down and feeling to return to fingers. Mucho oxycodone. Here's when I left the hospital:


Three weeks later stitches out and off to the first of many physio sessions. Turns out to fix the multiple breaks the surgeons had to cut a few more than desirable nerves.
Healing up nice.



Buggered the cartilage in the wrist as well. Still a bit numb in the fingers. Doctors say full recovery unlikely And I'm left handed
So now pretty much bored shitless with projects piling up.
Ah well.......

Cheers,
Glenn

 

[AussieJester]

Sorry to hear of your accident mate, i hope you get healed up best you can
and get back riding! What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger ...apparently :lol:

Buggered the cartilage in the wrist as well. Still a bit numb in the fingers. Doctors say full recovery unlikely And I'm left handed

Well.. You had to know this was coming?-->
i can think of one thing this could be advantageous for, no longer
need to sit on your hand for 15 minutes so it goes 'numb' prior to having
a tug! a sorry...couldn't resist.

get well son bud..


KiM

 

[dogman dan]

Deja vu. I was going only about 10 mph when I stuffed a waterbottle in my forks. Two broken collarbones, years to get even back to half my normal due to ligament damage to the shoulders.

About two years later I went over the bars at 27 mph, and came up fine. If you can slide without hitting anything, I think the fast one was safer. That slow crash gave me no time to get ready to hit, and slammed me straight down. The fast one I flew much further and could slide it out.

While recovering fromt the first one, I read ES for months.

 

[Philistine]

Bad luck, I was thinking the same thing as AJ, but in a bad way, that would be the first thing I would miss about losing the use of my hand, I would have to start being nice to the missus....

If it is any consolation a mate's dad had a similar speed crash on a pushbike a few years ago, and he ended up paraplegic. My mate said that the spinal ward is filled with less car accidents than you'd think, and more silly little accidents like falling off ladders, tripping over small ledges etc. etc.

I had nerve damage in a hand a few months ago and it was the pits, couldn't tie my own shoes properly for months, did come back though. Doctor told me the more distance the nerves are from the brain the longer the repair time can take, and so hands/feet take the longest. Was a good two or three months before I regained full nerves but they came good as new. Best of luck.

 

[Ypedal]

Doh..

At least you got it fixed right away.. i flipped my trike a few years ago *( new buggy, was still learning how to ride ) was a low speed fall over like 2 kph type stupid thing but i messed up my left hand pretty good.. the left side knuckles are all out of shape and not where they should be.. i hate.. repeat.. HATE hospitals to i popsicle stick and tapped the fingers together and let it heal the way it is now.. works ok but if i lift somethign heavy something is not pulling right and it hurts..

 

[StudEbiker]

Dang dude, sorry to hear it. Get well soon and get back riding!

 

[liveforphysics]

Did it drive the bone out through your arm?

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

Ouch!

That looks pretty painful, sorry that happened to ya, I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers, don't let the doctors take away hope!

Stranger things have happened, here's one for a full and complete recovery.

Get well soon!

 

[Glenn_M]

Thanks for the well wishes guys.
As I try to teach my kids, actions have consequences and it was my own stupid fault.
Coupla days after the stitches out and half-cast off already good improvement. But as I move it more it swells up like a watermelon again and goes numb. (Note taken of that handy tip there Kim )

Bone didn't puncture the skin Luke. The end was poking up the skin from underneath at a very unnatural angle but didn't poke through. Cuts are from above/below to insert plate to screw all the fragments to.

It will get better, or it wont. Either way, I don't really have anything to complain about in the grand scheme of things. Just do the physio and get back behind the handlebars / welder / tools / workbench and whatnot. Oh yeah and work to if I really have to.

Cheers,
Glenn