When I was discharged from hospital; 11 days after crashing at Ironman 70.3 Ireland and breaking my collar-bone, having had a titanium plate and 8 screws put in to pull the bits together, make it all straight and help it to heal properly; I was given some exercises to do (by the hospital physio specialising in orthopaedics) and told "NO RESISTANCE OR LIFTING AT ALL for 8 weeks AND when full ROM regained" (by the orthopaedic surgeon). I felt a bit stiff and hadn't really tried to do anything with that arm since the crash - it was just natural not to even try. I didn't realise quite how reduced the range of movement (ROM) was until I tried to do a few simple things.
I couldn't lift my arm more than an inch from hanging without assistance. I couldn't shrug my shoulder at all. I couldn't grip anything with my left hand. I couldn't move my arm sideways from my body at all. I didn't even try moving it backwards. So, getting dressed, putting my hair into a pony-tail, washing large bits of my back and my right arm and shoulder; none of that was possible. But I'm a really good girl when it comes to doing as I'm told for my own good with these things. Religiously, every day, 3 times a day, I did my exercises; pendulum swings of the arm in circles, raising my arm straight out in front of me (initially with the assistance of my right hand), crossing my arm in front of my body to touch my right shoulder and back out straight at shoulder height (initially with assistance from my right hand). And on the 8th day, I could just about put my hair into a wonky pony-tail at the nape of my neck. On the 9th day, a straight one actually in the middle of the nape of my neck. Then on the 11th day, I managed a pony-tail at the usual height on my head and rolled deodorant under my right armpit with my left hand!
Honestly, it's the little things... and it's not a lack of lifting power that is the hard thing (I don't think that's dropped much at all, but I have no idea as I'm not allowed to even try) it's the shocking lack of range of movement/general mobility that you really don't expect with this particular injury. Though it is coming back quickly. The surgeon seemed to imply that I may have it all back 8 weeks after surgery, I am confident it'll be back before then once I've got cracking with my normal physiotherapist.
Off to trauma and orthopaedics this morning for a check up and hopefully get the stitches out. I'll ask about hydrotherapy, using a spin bike and whether/when I can start running again and see what they say. Then it's physio at the end of the day with the protocol from the surgeon, to get started with him on increasing ROM (and after the 8 weeks is up, start on strength as well).
Showing posts with label broken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label broken. Show all posts
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Thursday, 6 September 2012
IM 70.3 Galway 2012 (@ironmanireland)
And this is where I spoke too soon...
4 days before Galway, I fell off my bike and got battered and scraped. At the time I was grateful it hadn't happened 4 days before IM Wales. Little did I know what was to come.
The day before IM 70.3 Ireland, the weather wasn't great. Rain, winds, swell in the sea. MrTOTKat (you can find his race report here) and I went for a little jog in the morning and then tried out the sea. There were volunteers and safety staff from Galway Tri (I think) checking people in and out of the sea and kayakers checking on people and giving handy tips. To be honest, it wasn't too bad, but the waves were plenty big enough to make sighting of the little orange buoys not easy and to force a large mouthful of water into my throat. That was pretty unpleasant and I struggled not to throw up immediately. We trundled 'round the buoys twice and then got out to sort out bikes and bags into transition.
As we got my bike together, MrTOTKat noticed that the gear cable going into my rear mech was dinked. On closer inspection, it was completely mashed, almost totally sheared off with only a couple of strands still intact. Argh! Thank god for on site bike mechanics - a cheerful, silver-haired chap replaced the cable and shroud and sorted out the gear alignment problem that the Planet X has suffered since I first rode it. All for the princely sum of €10 which he was happy to wait a couple of hours for me to go and get as we had no cash on us. Lovely chap!
All racked up next to the pros, thanks to our Ultimate Challenge athlete numbers that stay with us through the 4 races, I decided to leave my nutrition bars (opened and cut in half) in the bento box on the bike so I didn't forget them in the morning. It rained overnight...
A quiet, early dinner in the pub with the Stannetts (Kate and Charlie, also doing the challenge though Charlie had a horrible race at Bolton and didn't finish but is still doing the other races anyway) and in bed by 8pm.
Race morning and we have that down to a tee. Tea, Ready Brek (you never know what will be available and at what time, so we take something that works with just hot water) with Nutella and banana in it and time to make up the race drinks. We've been training with what's available in the races even though we should be able to be self-sufficient in this race, so we have Gatorade. And then we discovered an error. We had only enough to make up 2 litres of mix and we needed 3 litres between us. Ah well, upping the solid fuel (I had planned on bagel as well as bars and gels) and taking a weak mix with mostly water in the second of our bottles would work fine.
A nice short stroll from our (absolutely gorgeous!) B&B, the Sea Breeze Lodge, we went to transition to put bottles and bagel on our bikes (and I found that my bars, although sticky on one end, had not turned into porridge in the overnight rain) and trot off to the swim start.
Unlike Wimbleball, there was a multi-wave start here, with the pros off at 7am; M18-24, M25-29 and M30-34 at 07:05; M35-29 and M50-54 at 07:20; M55-59 and all female athletes at 07:35; M40-49 at 07:50; and finally the relay teams at 08:00.
Some of the pros ran into some confusion with the first buoy location, resulting in some adding a good 3-4 minutes to their swim, so the next wave were given information on which buoy to aim for and the erroneous one was soon deflated and removed.
MrTOTKat was off at 07:20 and I was soon after at 07:35, in the same wave as Kate and Charlie. As I waited to get into the sea for the deep water start, I couldn't help dancing along to the great tunes and reminding myself of how bouncy and perky Lucy Gossage was before Wimbleball with the same tunes pumping. The sea was much calmer than the day before and the swim felt pretty good. I had no problem sighting on the first buoy, but the second was very far away and I couldn't see it for a long time, relying on other athletes and the feel of the swell of the sea to work out the direction. I'm pretty sure I didn't take the best line and I know I didn't put in a lot of effort (looking at the HR trace afterwards :o)). The third buoy I definitely took way too wide and only just heard the safety kayakers shouting at us to go between the last two yellow buoys for the exit.
The swim exit was up the beach, up a concrete ramp and then down the road on the same green carpet as the finish chute (nice on the feet!), across the road and into the field for transition. I overtook quite a few people on that little trot, once I'd got my wet-suit off my arms and shoulders and down to waist level.
A reasonably quick transition with finding my blue bag quickly, dumping out the contents onto a chair, putting my (inside-out, bah!) cycling socks on, discarding my cycling jersey (forgetting it had the second spare inner tube in the pocket), jamming the all-important race belt and cycling helmet on, followed by bike shoes I trotted out to get my bike. That lovely new Adamo seat is not only the most comfortable seat ever, but it's quite distinctive in its Union Flag colours so it's easy to spot hooked over the bike rails. The one thing I had forgotten, which I only noticed as I approached the bike mount line, was my sunglasses. I'd said only the day before that no matter how tempted to not bother with them, glasses would be essential on the course with the wind blowing sand all around. A split second temptation to turn back and get them was crushed; the wind was much weaker today and I was going to risk it.
The bike course is an almost flat out and back, but the first section goes through the university and has some tight twists and turns, speed bumps and shortly afterwards a bit of rough road surface. I found out later that Bethan Fowler (one of the pros doing the Ultimate Challenge too) crashed in that bit of the course and damaged her rear derailleur. I again lost my front bottle over a rough bit of road, so jammed on the brakes and stopped to get it. A kind old gent had picked it up and was walking towards me. Noooo! This was right in front of a race marshal, so I asked the man to put the bottle down on the ground as I couldn't accept outside assistance. I had to speak slowly and deliberately as he was so pleased to help someone that he wasn't listening or comprehending what I was saying. He was only trying to help but didn't know he could get me disqualified. It was important that I got the message over, or I'd have to leave the bottle with him confused and pick one up at the aid station. He finally got it and I picked up the bottle from the pavement, slotted it in place and headed off thanking him a few more times so he didn't think I was a total cow.
Having got loads of mud and grass wedged into my cleats in transition, I had trouble getting clipped back in and nearly had a bit of an accident with my left shoe skittering hard off the pedal, under it and bending my ankle the wrong way briefly. At this point I was convinced I was going to have a really rubbish and slow bike leg, but finally clipped in and tried to settle down. A chunk of bagel and some glugs of Gatorade to start the fuelling and I started to ramp up the power.
As the km started ticking away, I turned up the dial until I started to fly past people. Overtaking people from the start wave before me, I started to feel pretty good. No burning thighs, so definitely not putting down too much power into the pedals the distance was being eaten up on this new set-up of TT bike, aero helmet and comfortable TT seat. The support out on the course was really warm and lovely and every group of people I passed cheered, clapped, clanged cow bells and I waved at them and smiled.
For the next 40km I played over-take with the woman who ended up third in my age category before finally making it stick. Coming into the last 15km I was feeling great and still reeling in other athletes when I came to this road...
A two way road with what looks like passing lanes on the sides - demarcated by painted lines and cats eyes (which you can clearly see in the Google street view image above). Shortly before this part of the road I think I came to a slower cyclist from an earlier wave, who I pulled out from inside the yellow lines into the main lane to overtake. I remember hitting and going over a cats eye.
One of these type...
I think I shouted something. I know I fish-tailed 5 or 6 times trying to regain control of the bike, thinking "when is this going to stabilise" before finally losing the bike out from underneath me. I was doing 34.5 km/h at the time.
I remember being on my back, shouting "help, oh god, someone help please". Then there were people. A man with a mountain bike and maybe some others. I remember lying on my back saying "please don't make me stop, I have to finish, I have four of these to do". I remember being briefly worried I'd broken my leg and then seeing a small cut on my thumb and thinking that was the only injury. Then I remember someone pushing me on the back of my seat to get me started. I have no idea how I got on my bike. You can see from the Garmin stats that I was stopped for about 5 minutes and 20 seconds or so (time vs. moving time).
I have no idea how I got back the last 9ish km to transition from the crash site. No memory of it at all. I remember turning off my bike computer. I remember sitting in the transition tent in the medical area, a face talking to me, but no idea what he said or who he was, and again I said that I had to finish and begged not to have to stop. I have no memory otherwise of what happened in transition. I have no recollection of taking off my helmet or shoes, racking my bike or getting my red bag (I suspect volunteers did a lot of it for me). I remember putting on my left running shoe with one hand and not understanding why at the time. I remember deciding not to put on my running cap and thinking it was a shame I didn't have my sun glasses. I don't remember getting out on to the run course. Apparently I was in T2 for around 15 minutes.
Memory returns at some point on the run course when I started to talk to a guy called Jamie (I think), who recognised my name from the programme (all the Ultimate Challenge athletes are named with photos in the race programme in a double page spread) it turned out. I was being shadowed by the medic bicycles, some of who were happy to chat and told me they'd been sent to watch over me, some hung back trying to be subtle (guys, the free-wheel clicking is a dead give-away :o)). I knew something wasn't right as my left arm naturally gravitated to sitting with my hand latched onto my heart rate transmitter and as I passed MrTOTKat on his 2nd lap as I was on my first I let him know something was up but that I'd go to the medic tent at the end.
As I passed spectators on the run course, I kept hearing sharp intakes of breath, the odd "oh dear god", and "that's so brave". All I knew was my arm needed to be at the angle I was holding it at and I could see a bit of a graze on the front of my left shoulder out of the corner of my eye. What were they seeing that I couldn't? The chap I was talking to said I had quite a graze down the back which looked nasty, so I guessed that was it. I actually felt pretty OK as long as I held my arm in place and didn't jar things too much. Walking the aid stations for water and a glug of energy drink, I knew I'd get to the end and it wouldn't be too shabby either. No run PB for the distance, but not dawdling for sure.
On my final lap, I came across Charlie Stannett and we ran together for a bit. He decided to run just behind my left shoulder to shield me from accidental bumps from other athletes (what a sweetie!) and we stayed together until he finally spotted his Kate (who he'd been worried about to that point as he'd not yet seen her on the run) just as we came to the final funnel either to the finishing chute (where I was then headed) or more run laps (Charlie had another lap to go).
I saw the green carpet and launched myself down the finishing chute. I could hear Paul Kaye, the race commentator, calling my name in almost disbelief that I was coming for the finish line (turns out I was all over the race radio from the crash onwards) and I knew the race was almost done and I could get sorted by the medics.
As I crossed the line and was handed my medal I was greeted by a medic who said they'd been waiting for me. He led me to the medical area to find a concerned-looking MrTOTKat. We sat and I was tended to. I asked MrTOTKat how he'd done. Having no idea what my time was, I said "it wasn't under 6 was it?" Little did I know at the time that I'd come in at 06:18 myself (including a 5 minute "rest" on the bike, a 15 minute "nap" in T2 and two wee stops on the run), and he said "05:22" with a big grin on his face.
Damian (or was it Derren?) the medic cleaned up my grazes and got the doctor to come and give me a shot of difene in the bum for the pain. That took about 20 minutes to kick in and then I felt lovely. Nobody was too sure whether my collar bone was broken or not at the time but the lack of movement and the pain level was enough to send me to hospital for x-rays to be sure. MrTOTKat stayed behind to get our race bags, bikes and assorted stuff while I was whisked off in an ambulance to UCHG.
Long story short, I ended up stood in front of the x-ray machine while the radiographer took his x-ray. We chatted and I was still in denial right up to saying, "I'm racing again in 2 weeks" *click*bzzzzz* (goes the x-ray machine) "No you're not". And he showed me the x-ray.
Up until this point, and even after, I was convinced I'd be able to carry on with the Ultimate Challenge and that everything would be fine.
I cannot in any way condone doing what I did on this day. The drain on race safety resources who could have been needed by someone in real trouble was not a good thing to have done. It was utterly selfish of me, but at the time I was full of adrenaline and had "race head" on. I am glad for myself that I finished, more on why that is in another post along with the stats and analysis.
The rest is a story for another day.
4 days before Galway, I fell off my bike and got battered and scraped. At the time I was grateful it hadn't happened 4 days before IM Wales. Little did I know what was to come.
The day before IM 70.3 Ireland, the weather wasn't great. Rain, winds, swell in the sea. MrTOTKat (you can find his race report here) and I went for a little jog in the morning and then tried out the sea. There were volunteers and safety staff from Galway Tri (I think) checking people in and out of the sea and kayakers checking on people and giving handy tips. To be honest, it wasn't too bad, but the waves were plenty big enough to make sighting of the little orange buoys not easy and to force a large mouthful of water into my throat. That was pretty unpleasant and I struggled not to throw up immediately. We trundled 'round the buoys twice and then got out to sort out bikes and bags into transition.
As we got my bike together, MrTOTKat noticed that the gear cable going into my rear mech was dinked. On closer inspection, it was completely mashed, almost totally sheared off with only a couple of strands still intact. Argh! Thank god for on site bike mechanics - a cheerful, silver-haired chap replaced the cable and shroud and sorted out the gear alignment problem that the Planet X has suffered since I first rode it. All for the princely sum of €10 which he was happy to wait a couple of hours for me to go and get as we had no cash on us. Lovely chap!
All racked up next to the pros, thanks to our Ultimate Challenge athlete numbers that stay with us through the 4 races, I decided to leave my nutrition bars (opened and cut in half) in the bento box on the bike so I didn't forget them in the morning. It rained overnight...
A quiet, early dinner in the pub with the Stannetts (Kate and Charlie, also doing the challenge though Charlie had a horrible race at Bolton and didn't finish but is still doing the other races anyway) and in bed by 8pm.
Race morning and we have that down to a tee. Tea, Ready Brek (you never know what will be available and at what time, so we take something that works with just hot water) with Nutella and banana in it and time to make up the race drinks. We've been training with what's available in the races even though we should be able to be self-sufficient in this race, so we have Gatorade. And then we discovered an error. We had only enough to make up 2 litres of mix and we needed 3 litres between us. Ah well, upping the solid fuel (I had planned on bagel as well as bars and gels) and taking a weak mix with mostly water in the second of our bottles would work fine.
A nice short stroll from our (absolutely gorgeous!) B&B, the Sea Breeze Lodge, we went to transition to put bottles and bagel on our bikes (and I found that my bars, although sticky on one end, had not turned into porridge in the overnight rain) and trot off to the swim start.
Unlike Wimbleball, there was a multi-wave start here, with the pros off at 7am; M18-24, M25-29 and M30-34 at 07:05; M35-29 and M50-54 at 07:20; M55-59 and all female athletes at 07:35; M40-49 at 07:50; and finally the relay teams at 08:00.
Some of the pros ran into some confusion with the first buoy location, resulting in some adding a good 3-4 minutes to their swim, so the next wave were given information on which buoy to aim for and the erroneous one was soon deflated and removed.
 |
| Always look gorgeous coming out of a swim! |
The swim exit was up the beach, up a concrete ramp and then down the road on the same green carpet as the finish chute (nice on the feet!), across the road and into the field for transition. I overtook quite a few people on that little trot, once I'd got my wet-suit off my arms and shoulders and down to waist level.
The bike course is an almost flat out and back, but the first section goes through the university and has some tight twists and turns, speed bumps and shortly afterwards a bit of rough road surface. I found out later that Bethan Fowler (one of the pros doing the Ultimate Challenge too) crashed in that bit of the course and damaged her rear derailleur. I again lost my front bottle over a rough bit of road, so jammed on the brakes and stopped to get it. A kind old gent had picked it up and was walking towards me. Noooo! This was right in front of a race marshal, so I asked the man to put the bottle down on the ground as I couldn't accept outside assistance. I had to speak slowly and deliberately as he was so pleased to help someone that he wasn't listening or comprehending what I was saying. He was only trying to help but didn't know he could get me disqualified. It was important that I got the message over, or I'd have to leave the bottle with him confused and pick one up at the aid station. He finally got it and I picked up the bottle from the pavement, slotted it in place and headed off thanking him a few more times so he didn't think I was a total cow.
Having got loads of mud and grass wedged into my cleats in transition, I had trouble getting clipped back in and nearly had a bit of an accident with my left shoe skittering hard off the pedal, under it and bending my ankle the wrong way briefly. At this point I was convinced I was going to have a really rubbish and slow bike leg, but finally clipped in and tried to settle down. A chunk of bagel and some glugs of Gatorade to start the fuelling and I started to ramp up the power.
 |
| Vrooom! |
 |
| Under normal circumstances, I would have been pleased with these stats. As it is, I'm actually very very pleased indeed. |
For the next 40km I played over-take with the woman who ended up third in my age category before finally making it stick. Coming into the last 15km I was feeling great and still reeling in other athletes when I came to this road...
A two way road with what looks like passing lanes on the sides - demarcated by painted lines and cats eyes (which you can clearly see in the Google street view image above). Shortly before this part of the road I think I came to a slower cyclist from an earlier wave, who I pulled out from inside the yellow lines into the main lane to overtake. I remember hitting and going over a cats eye.
One of these type...
I think I shouted something. I know I fish-tailed 5 or 6 times trying to regain control of the bike, thinking "when is this going to stabilise" before finally losing the bike out from underneath me. I was doing 34.5 km/h at the time.
I remember being on my back, shouting "help, oh god, someone help please". Then there were people. A man with a mountain bike and maybe some others. I remember lying on my back saying "please don't make me stop, I have to finish, I have four of these to do". I remember being briefly worried I'd broken my leg and then seeing a small cut on my thumb and thinking that was the only injury. Then I remember someone pushing me on the back of my seat to get me started. I have no idea how I got on my bike. You can see from the Garmin stats that I was stopped for about 5 minutes and 20 seconds or so (time vs. moving time).I have no idea how I got back the last 9ish km to transition from the crash site. No memory of it at all. I remember turning off my bike computer. I remember sitting in the transition tent in the medical area, a face talking to me, but no idea what he said or who he was, and again I said that I had to finish and begged not to have to stop. I have no memory otherwise of what happened in transition. I have no recollection of taking off my helmet or shoes, racking my bike or getting my red bag (I suspect volunteers did a lot of it for me). I remember putting on my left running shoe with one hand and not understanding why at the time. I remember deciding not to put on my running cap and thinking it was a shame I didn't have my sun glasses. I don't remember getting out on to the run course. Apparently I was in T2 for around 15 minutes.
 |
| You can see after 03:20ish, which is a real HR drop off, that I was quite ginger getting back to T2 and was then there for ~15 minutes before going on the run. (and forgot to turn it off at the end for a while) |
As I passed spectators on the run course, I kept hearing sharp intakes of breath, the odd "oh dear god", and "that's so brave". All I knew was my arm needed to be at the angle I was holding it at and I could see a bit of a graze on the front of my left shoulder out of the corner of my eye. What were they seeing that I couldn't? The chap I was talking to said I had quite a graze down the back which looked nasty, so I guessed that was it. I actually felt pretty OK as long as I held my arm in place and didn't jar things too much. Walking the aid stations for water and a glug of energy drink, I knew I'd get to the end and it wouldn't be too shabby either. No run PB for the distance, but not dawdling for sure.
 |
| Charlie and me |
I saw the green carpet and launched myself down the finishing chute. I could hear Paul Kaye, the race commentator, calling my name in almost disbelief that I was coming for the finish line (turns out I was all over the race radio from the crash onwards) and I knew the race was almost done and I could get sorted by the medics.
As I crossed the line and was handed my medal I was greeted by a medic who said they'd been waiting for me. He led me to the medical area to find a concerned-looking MrTOTKat. We sat and I was tended to. I asked MrTOTKat how he'd done. Having no idea what my time was, I said "it wasn't under 6 was it?" Little did I know at the time that I'd come in at 06:18 myself (including a 5 minute "rest" on the bike, a 15 minute "nap" in T2 and two wee stops on the run), and he said "05:22" with a big grin on his face.Damian (or was it Derren?) the medic cleaned up my grazes and got the doctor to come and give me a shot of difene in the bum for the pain. That took about 20 minutes to kick in and then I felt lovely. Nobody was too sure whether my collar bone was broken or not at the time but the lack of movement and the pain level was enough to send me to hospital for x-rays to be sure. MrTOTKat stayed behind to get our race bags, bikes and assorted stuff while I was whisked off in an ambulance to UCHG.
Long story short, I ended up stood in front of the x-ray machine while the radiographer took his x-ray. We chatted and I was still in denial right up to saying, "I'm racing again in 2 weeks" *click*bzzzzz* (goes the x-ray machine) "No you're not". And he showed me the x-ray.
 |
| Ow. |
I cannot in any way condone doing what I did on this day. The drain on race safety resources who could have been needed by someone in real trouble was not a good thing to have done. It was utterly selfish of me, but at the time I was full of adrenaline and had "race head" on. I am glad for myself that I finished, more on why that is in another post along with the stats and analysis.
The rest is a story for another day.
 |
| Forgot to turn the run Garmin off too. But hey, not bad avg. moving pace for having a broken collar bone? |
 |
| Detailed bike splits. Stopped for dropped bottle in 1st 5km, crash in 17th 5km and not sure what the stop was in the 18th 5km. |
 |
| Detailed run splits - wee stop in 3rd and 14th km, total bugger to get shorts on and off with one hand! |
Friday, 1 July 2011
Sod.
So I'd been sort of doing my physio instructed exercises for my knee but there was still a niggling wrongness going on and I'd not had a follow-up appointment so I arranged an appointment this evening in advance of the weekend's races, in case a quick bit of acupuncture might be in order to help get through them.
Bloody good thing I did.
The nerve inflammation is lesser and the stiffness is gone compared with 2.5 weeks ago, but what it has shown up is a potentially serious problem. My left fibula is either broken or dislocated. Or, more likely from what we saw this evening, both. The physio had a good old poke and yank and got a second and third opinion from two others (one of whom had the decency to say "wow, that's really not right!") and then some ultrasound shows up what rather looks like a break where the outer edge of the bone has splintered in a fanned-out pattern in addition to the head of the fibula being way too far back compared with where it should be. This would explain absolutely everything with all of the symptoms (and some others I'd not mentioned because I didn't really think to). The kind of break it looks like would be as a result of a hard impact. *cough* Like a bicycle accident. *ahem*
So. I'm waiting to hear back from the physio as to what his sports doctor thinks and whether I can get a scan ASAP to work out -exactly- what's going on. Best case, it's "just" dislocated and needs relocation either in the clinic or in hospital (more likely given the kind of dislocation involved). Worst case it's broken and partly healed and dislocated and a nightmare to fix. There was talk of months of pinning and fiddling about after unpinning etc.
All I can do is wait to hear back. And my default position right now is no racing this weekend until I hear that I definitely can. *twiddles thumbs and waits for the phone to ring* To be honest, I'm feeling fine about it all and I'm glad this is happening now rather than this time next year.
Bloody good thing I did.
The nerve inflammation is lesser and the stiffness is gone compared with 2.5 weeks ago, but what it has shown up is a potentially serious problem. My left fibula is either broken or dislocated. Or, more likely from what we saw this evening, both. The physio had a good old poke and yank and got a second and third opinion from two others (one of whom had the decency to say "wow, that's really not right!") and then some ultrasound shows up what rather looks like a break where the outer edge of the bone has splintered in a fanned-out pattern in addition to the head of the fibula being way too far back compared with where it should be. This would explain absolutely everything with all of the symptoms (and some others I'd not mentioned because I didn't really think to). The kind of break it looks like would be as a result of a hard impact. *cough* Like a bicycle accident. *ahem*
So. I'm waiting to hear back from the physio as to what his sports doctor thinks and whether I can get a scan ASAP to work out -exactly- what's going on. Best case, it's "just" dislocated and needs relocation either in the clinic or in hospital (more likely given the kind of dislocation involved). Worst case it's broken and partly healed and dislocated and a nightmare to fix. There was talk of months of pinning and fiddling about after unpinning etc.
All I can do is wait to hear back. And my default position right now is no racing this weekend until I hear that I definitely can. *twiddles thumbs and waits for the phone to ring* To be honest, I'm feeling fine about it all and I'm glad this is happening now rather than this time next year.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Bike and helmet damage
I'm back from the Evans workshop with an initial, rough diagnosis - letter to follow and the handlebars and frame still need full assessment. The guy in the workshop wanted to have a chat about what happened before having a proper look. Nice guy.
Basically the front fork and wheel are definitely no good now and the back wheel is iffy. It's hard to show the wheel damage, so I haven't. The frame -may- be OK. It's a few mm out but without a more thorough assessment tomorrow the jury is still out.
Remember, these are carbon fibre reinforced forks, so rather than bend, they will crack or snap and even if you can't see any surface damage, once impacted hard they can be damaged internally and you'll never see that.
See the crack right through, opened up at the back and bulging at the front.
It might not look like much damage but, trust me, that's trashed and utterly unsafe.
Helmets should -always- be replaced after an accident, regardless of whether there is visible damage. In my case, there -is- visible damage and I now have a new helmet. The absolute kicker is that this one was brand new! I only bought it at the weekend and wore it out for the first time on the day of the accident!
Nice crack right through the polystyrene. It's probably compressed quite a bit internally too.
Prognosis at the moment is that the bike -might- be OK to replace parts on and still be safe to ride, but I have to wait to find out for sure tomorrow. But at the cost of forks, wheels and potentially handlebars all plus labour... it's going to be a toss-up probably even if the frame is safe. There are comparable road bikes out there for the price I paid for this Felt and comparable to the cost of fixing it up again. I -do- love my Felt, but...
I'm probably not going to post images of my injuries, mostly because I couldn't get a decent angle on them by myself. Suffice to say, I have 13 bruises of varying size (6 utter corkers and 7 smaller ones) and a few grazes as well as the injuries you can't see (neck, shoulder and lower sternum/ribs/diaphragm area).
I'm not scared though. And I can't wait to get back on a bike again. It wasn't my fault and there was nothing I could have done not to crash, but that doesn't mean I should be frightened, it just means I was really unlucky.
Basically the front fork and wheel are definitely no good now and the back wheel is iffy. It's hard to show the wheel damage, so I haven't. The frame -may- be OK. It's a few mm out but without a more thorough assessment tomorrow the jury is still out.
Remember, these are carbon fibre reinforced forks, so rather than bend, they will crack or snap and even if you can't see any surface damage, once impacted hard they can be damaged internally and you'll never see that.
See the crack right through, opened up at the back and bulging at the front.
It might not look like much damage but, trust me, that's trashed and utterly unsafe.
Helmets should -always- be replaced after an accident, regardless of whether there is visible damage. In my case, there -is- visible damage and I now have a new helmet. The absolute kicker is that this one was brand new! I only bought it at the weekend and wore it out for the first time on the day of the accident!
Nice crack right through the polystyrene. It's probably compressed quite a bit internally too.
You can clearly see that I hit my head on the back at the right.
Prognosis at the moment is that the bike -might- be OK to replace parts on and still be safe to ride, but I have to wait to find out for sure tomorrow. But at the cost of forks, wheels and potentially handlebars all plus labour... it's going to be a toss-up probably even if the frame is safe. There are comparable road bikes out there for the price I paid for this Felt and comparable to the cost of fixing it up again. I -do- love my Felt, but...
I'm probably not going to post images of my injuries, mostly because I couldn't get a decent angle on them by myself. Suffice to say, I have 13 bruises of varying size (6 utter corkers and 7 smaller ones) and a few grazes as well as the injuries you can't see (neck, shoulder and lower sternum/ribs/diaphragm area).
I'm not scared though. And I can't wait to get back on a bike again. It wasn't my fault and there was nothing I could have done not to crash, but that doesn't mean I should be frightened, it just means I was really unlucky.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Trashed bike (probably) and helmet
On my way in to work this morning, I was about 12 minutes into my ride, maybe 15 and was flying up CS7 alongside the traffic jam of cars. I was just at the junction of Oldridge Road and Balham High Road with a large van stationary just in front to the right of me, when a car going the other way suddenly appeared across the front of me, turning right into Oldridge Road. I was doing about 25kph, maybe a bit more; the car was probably doing around 10kph. I only found out about it when my front wheel was taken out by the front of the car and a second or so later I felt myself land and the back of my head hit the road.
[Yellow box is me on my bicycle travelling North in the massively wide cycle lane. Purple boxes are stationary cars trying to go North. Red box is large, stationary van trying to go North. Blue box is blue car going South, turning right at the same time as I'm passing the side road.]
I screamed. For the first time in my entire life, I screamed. Twice. Maybe three times. My eyes were shut and I didn't dare open them. There were people around me asking me to open my eyes, so I did. I could hear a female voice saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Is she OK?" over and over. My knees hurt, my head felt a bit funny and I didn't want to move. They were all asking me was I OK, then one guy seemed to have some medical training and asked me my name, looked at my eyes, checked my grip, spine, hips and shoulders and then decided it was OK to get me moved. I was keen to get out of the way of the traffic, but people kept telling me not to worry about it.
My bike was moved for me, I have no idea where it ended up first of all; I think it went over the car. The car that hit me was behind me, so I must have gone right over the bonnet. My shoes unclipped totally from the pedals pretty much immediately the impact happened, which is a relief. With all the adrenaline bubbling about, I told everyone I was fine and totally intended to carry on in to work and that no, I didn't need any of the three ambulances that had been called for me. No really, I'm fine. The guy who checked my back and brain were mostly OK advised me to get me bike checked out before riding it again in case the headset was damaged which I thought, mm I'll do that on the way home tonight.
The woman that hit me took me for a cup of tea and I really did intend just to get on my bike and carry on in to work. As we got up to leave the cafe, I looked down at my right knee and saw two huge lumps on it as well as the graze. The woman was advising me to go home and have a hot bath, which was sounding more and more inviting by the minute. My neck was starting to get sore and my jaw hurt as I opened it, so I thought I'll just check my bike in to the bike shop over the road for a check-over and head to a walk-in clinic to get myself checked over.
As I walked my bike to wait for the bike shop to open, I noticed something catching every revolution of the wheels. So I lifted up the back and spun the back wheel - tiiiiiiiny bit wobbly but not catching on the brakes. Did the same with the front... not so good. Bent. And looking at the right side of the front forks for the first time, I saw that they were broken. Feeling a bit sick and headachey by this point I decided to go to St. Georges A&E to get properly checked out.
Then the shock finally started to wear off a bit and I was in floods of tears all the way to the hospital. Snotty and sniffling, tears streaking down my cheeks. By this point I couldn't turn my head to check for traffic coming in roads to the right of me, so had to turn my whole body to do that.
I locked my bike up outside the hospital and went in to A&E to register. Only to get totally told off by the triage nurse for not coming in an ambulance, bumped to the front of the queue and told I was being treated as 'trauma' as I -should- have come in an ambulance especially given I went over the bonnet of the car. I'm terrible. I don't like making a fuss. I don't like going to the doctor unless something is pretty much hanging off. I really need to get over that. That said, while I was in A & E waiting to be seen by a doctor, I heard a call come in for another accident - 20 minutes away in the ambulance; pedestrian vs. cyclist at 30mph. Brain bleeding, BP very high, other internal injuries, suspected probably won't survive the ambulance journey. I don't know if that was the pedestrian or the cyclist, but I'd suspect the pedestrian at that speed. I didn't find out in the end.
At this point, I felt very lucky.
The doctor came and... long story short, my BP and heart rate were very high (I still had my heart rate monitor on and it didn't drop below 100 even after sitting down for 20 minutes). Spine, hips, shoulders and brain checked out OK. Knees and calves just badly bruised, scraped and a bit lumpy. Neck and jaw minor injuries that would need ice packs for a few days and Ibuprofen to treat. No work for at least 2 days, no gym or cycling for 2 weeks. Immediate treatment with diclofenac (and some bread and butter and tea to help make it easier on the stomach) and 2 hours observation before being discharged with a letter sent to my GP detailing the injuries.
Home now and my bike is in for a safety check with a definite broken front fork, very likely needing replacement front wheel, maybe replacement back wheel (might be fixable, might not). They're going to check the frame to see if/how much it is bent and the brakes, gears, crank etc. It's going to be a toss up whether it's a write-off or not, but given the cost of the safety check, replacement front fork, replacement front wheel, replacement or trueing of rear wheel and labour as a definite cost to fix it up safe to ride... it's sailing close to the original cost of the bike anyway. If it is going to cost loads to fix it up, I'll get the pedals and a few other bits off it and scrap the rest.
Annoyingly, my camera is out of battery and I'm too tired/sore to go find the charger, so here's a list of the injuries:-
Bicycle - front fork cracked right through (not fixable), front wheel buckled (not fixable), back wheel a bit bent (may be fixable), frame and crank etc. being checked out.
I need to go and find Ibuprofen now. And sort out more ice for the rest of the day. Everything aches. My neck and shoulders hurt a lot unless I slouch in a bad way and I'm feeling washed out and tired. I've already eaten 4 slices of bread (two in the hospital with butter on and two toasted with Marmite when I got home) 'cause I'm starving hungry but I don't care what I eat today as long as I do eat. I want to nap, but that's a bad idea unsupervised at the moment, so I'll try not to do that for at least a few more hours if not normal bed-time.
Time to count my blessings and drink tea with kittens cuddled up.
[Yellow box is me on my bicycle travelling North in the massively wide cycle lane. Purple boxes are stationary cars trying to go North. Red box is large, stationary van trying to go North. Blue box is blue car going South, turning right at the same time as I'm passing the side road.]
I screamed. For the first time in my entire life, I screamed. Twice. Maybe three times. My eyes were shut and I didn't dare open them. There were people around me asking me to open my eyes, so I did. I could hear a female voice saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Is she OK?" over and over. My knees hurt, my head felt a bit funny and I didn't want to move. They were all asking me was I OK, then one guy seemed to have some medical training and asked me my name, looked at my eyes, checked my grip, spine, hips and shoulders and then decided it was OK to get me moved. I was keen to get out of the way of the traffic, but people kept telling me not to worry about it.
My bike was moved for me, I have no idea where it ended up first of all; I think it went over the car. The car that hit me was behind me, so I must have gone right over the bonnet. My shoes unclipped totally from the pedals pretty much immediately the impact happened, which is a relief. With all the adrenaline bubbling about, I told everyone I was fine and totally intended to carry on in to work and that no, I didn't need any of the three ambulances that had been called for me. No really, I'm fine. The guy who checked my back and brain were mostly OK advised me to get me bike checked out before riding it again in case the headset was damaged which I thought, mm I'll do that on the way home tonight.
The woman that hit me took me for a cup of tea and I really did intend just to get on my bike and carry on in to work. As we got up to leave the cafe, I looked down at my right knee and saw two huge lumps on it as well as the graze. The woman was advising me to go home and have a hot bath, which was sounding more and more inviting by the minute. My neck was starting to get sore and my jaw hurt as I opened it, so I thought I'll just check my bike in to the bike shop over the road for a check-over and head to a walk-in clinic to get myself checked over.
As I walked my bike to wait for the bike shop to open, I noticed something catching every revolution of the wheels. So I lifted up the back and spun the back wheel - tiiiiiiiny bit wobbly but not catching on the brakes. Did the same with the front... not so good. Bent. And looking at the right side of the front forks for the first time, I saw that they were broken. Feeling a bit sick and headachey by this point I decided to go to St. Georges A&E to get properly checked out.
Then the shock finally started to wear off a bit and I was in floods of tears all the way to the hospital. Snotty and sniffling, tears streaking down my cheeks. By this point I couldn't turn my head to check for traffic coming in roads to the right of me, so had to turn my whole body to do that.
I locked my bike up outside the hospital and went in to A&E to register. Only to get totally told off by the triage nurse for not coming in an ambulance, bumped to the front of the queue and told I was being treated as 'trauma' as I -should- have come in an ambulance especially given I went over the bonnet of the car. I'm terrible. I don't like making a fuss. I don't like going to the doctor unless something is pretty much hanging off. I really need to get over that. That said, while I was in A & E waiting to be seen by a doctor, I heard a call come in for another accident - 20 minutes away in the ambulance; pedestrian vs. cyclist at 30mph. Brain bleeding, BP very high, other internal injuries, suspected probably won't survive the ambulance journey. I don't know if that was the pedestrian or the cyclist, but I'd suspect the pedestrian at that speed. I didn't find out in the end.
At this point, I felt very lucky.
The doctor came and... long story short, my BP and heart rate were very high (I still had my heart rate monitor on and it didn't drop below 100 even after sitting down for 20 minutes). Spine, hips, shoulders and brain checked out OK. Knees and calves just badly bruised, scraped and a bit lumpy. Neck and jaw minor injuries that would need ice packs for a few days and Ibuprofen to treat. No work for at least 2 days, no gym or cycling for 2 weeks. Immediate treatment with diclofenac (and some bread and butter and tea to help make it easier on the stomach) and 2 hours observation before being discharged with a letter sent to my GP detailing the injuries.
Home now and my bike is in for a safety check with a definite broken front fork, very likely needing replacement front wheel, maybe replacement back wheel (might be fixable, might not). They're going to check the frame to see if/how much it is bent and the brakes, gears, crank etc. It's going to be a toss up whether it's a write-off or not, but given the cost of the safety check, replacement front fork, replacement front wheel, replacement or trueing of rear wheel and labour as a definite cost to fix it up safe to ride... it's sailing close to the original cost of the bike anyway. If it is going to cost loads to fix it up, I'll get the pedals and a few other bits off it and scrap the rest.
Annoyingly, my camera is out of battery and I'm too tired/sore to go find the charger, so here's a list of the injuries:-
- Left knee - bruised on top and both sides, grazed on the top and left side
- Left calf - large bruise
- Right knee - tangerine-sized lump on the left with a graze, egg-sized lump on top with a graze, large scrape down the right side of the calf behind the knee
- Left side of jaw - sore to open
- Left side of back of neck, very very sore
- Bottom of neck, both sides and spreading out across the back of my shoulders - very very sore
- Right side of back of head - bruised/sore
Bicycle - front fork cracked right through (not fixable), front wheel buckled (not fixable), back wheel a bit bent (may be fixable), frame and crank etc. being checked out.
I need to go and find Ibuprofen now. And sort out more ice for the rest of the day. Everything aches. My neck and shoulders hurt a lot unless I slouch in a bad way and I'm feeling washed out and tired. I've already eaten 4 slices of bread (two in the hospital with butter on and two toasted with Marmite when I got home) 'cause I'm starving hungry but I don't care what I eat today as long as I do eat. I want to nap, but that's a bad idea unsupervised at the moment, so I'll try not to do that for at least a few more hours if not normal bed-time.
Time to count my blessings and drink tea with kittens cuddled up.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Aw nuts!
That there Tefal ActiFry I was trying out... broke. Nothing to do with usage or cleaning of it, it fell off the worktop, I think the cable got tangled in something I was moving around behind it. It went flying onto the floor, the back of the casing smashed to bits, the fan blades inside at the back got sproinged and a cable came off relating to the motor.
So. It's now off to the tip to meet it's resting place. Not entirely impressed with smashed appliances all over the kitchen floor, it's a right old waste, but thankfully it wasn't the most used or favourite one. Hey ho.
So. It's now off to the tip to meet it's resting place. Not entirely impressed with smashed appliances all over the kitchen floor, it's a right old waste, but thankfully it wasn't the most used or favourite one. Hey ho.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Back from hols
And "only" 800g gain (probably quite a bit of "transit" still going on) despite beer every single night (magic beer with no hangovers at all!) and piles of chips or huge hunks of bread at every other meal. Wooo!
Oh and I broke my coccyx at the end of the first day's skiing, so that was fun... still, my HRM says 6,774kcals burned not including 4 hours of hill hiking the day after I broke my butt ;o)
So, training for the triathlon on Easter Monday is more than likely out of the window. I'll see what the doc says tomorrow about whether I'm allowed to do any weight training (lifting anything more than my own hands and arms and I can feel it in my butt-bone!) or running, never mind cycling. I'm sure swimming will be allowed, though.
Oh and I broke my coccyx at the end of the first day's skiing, so that was fun... still, my HRM says 6,774kcals burned not including 4 hours of hill hiking the day after I broke my butt ;o)
So, training for the triathlon on Easter Monday is more than likely out of the window. I'll see what the doc says tomorrow about whether I'm allowed to do any weight training (lifting anything more than my own hands and arms and I can feel it in my butt-bone!) or running, never mind cycling. I'm sure swimming will be allowed, though.
Friday, 26 February 2010
No trainer session
Today was supposed to include a catch-up session with my trainer, but the poor dear dislocated his finger and broke a bit of it as well and is still trying to get it x-rayed. I bumped into him on the way out of the gym, looking all strapped up but very chirpy (he's just like that all the time, I think) despite having spent 5 hours in the local A&E waiting for an x-ray that still hasn't happened! Anyhoo, I had a gym session anyway, by myself. Which was kinda good as I was apprehensive about today's session and what it might entail. I did increase one thing in today's session; I upped the reverse crunches to 3x15 interleaved with the Swiss Ball jackknives.
Tonight is my night in this week and I've got some lovely beef chilli with softened courgette ribbons, shredded onion and toasted pine nuts on the side to eat while I read "Men's Fitness". Lots of fitnessy people I follow have said it's good, so I thought I'd give it a try this month seeing as there's a freebie with it as well. Let's see, shall we?
Oh! And we has kitchen scales again! Muuuch better. I didn't realise quite how much I rely on them for most meals until the old ones broke. It was quite unnerving, guessing stuff, though some measures could be approximated using tablespoons, cups and mls. It's just not the same as weighing though!
B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, fruit compote and a sprinkle of grape nuts
S - Dorset Cereals bar; 3 berries and cherries
*gym*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, pomegranate seeds, celery, capers, cherry tomatoes, chicken fillet and lemon juice
S - tangerines
S - carrot and houmous
S - banana
D - beef chilli with courgette, onion and pine nuts
S - chunk of ciabatta with stilton (NOM!)
Exercise - 53 minute gym (HRmax - 184, HRavg - 159)
Tonight is my night in this week and I've got some lovely beef chilli with softened courgette ribbons, shredded onion and toasted pine nuts on the side to eat while I read "Men's Fitness". Lots of fitnessy people I follow have said it's good, so I thought I'd give it a try this month seeing as there's a freebie with it as well. Let's see, shall we?
Oh! And we has kitchen scales again! Muuuch better. I didn't realise quite how much I rely on them for most meals until the old ones broke. It was quite unnerving, guessing stuff, though some measures could be approximated using tablespoons, cups and mls. It's just not the same as weighing though!
B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, fruit compote and a sprinkle of grape nuts
S - Dorset Cereals bar; 3 berries and cherries
*gym*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, pomegranate seeds, celery, capers, cherry tomatoes, chicken fillet and lemon juice
S - tangerines
S - carrot and houmous
S - banana
D - beef chilli with courgette, onion and pine nuts
S - chunk of ciabatta with stilton (NOM!)
Exercise - 53 minute gym (HRmax - 184, HRavg - 159)
| Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise) | 1736 2218 |
| Protein (g) | 150.6 |
| Carbohydrate (g) | 178.1 |
| Fat (g) | 46.7 |
| Fruit & Veg | 15.2 |
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