A week ago I watched the world from the saddle of my Brompton. Today I've been observing from a hired wheelchair.
Shuttling from station to car on way home last Tuesday I lost the bike on a patch of wet car park decking. Not fast but I think I touched a brake to allow a car to go in front. Went down like a nine-pin onto my left shoulder and hip. After a rest managed to stagger to car but no way I could ease myself in. Mrs & Miss B were summoned from community band practice and took me to A&E. Initial diagnosis was severe bruising but precautionary x-ray revealed fractures of clavicle and neck of left femur.
Surgery similar to Iffy's but I've retained my own bones, albeit screwed and plated. Six nights in hospital on a ward where I reduced the average age by 20%.Now six weeks on crutches 'toe touch' weight bearing only with physio etc to follow for hip and much less severe injury to clavicle.
The NHS were brilliant. Anaesthesia and pain control worked to a tee. I was well fed, cared for by some super lasses and lads as health care assistants. One or two nurses were tartars though! Now home but with 20 more doses of anti-coagulant to self inject daily into my abdomen.
Miss B too me to the Red Cross today and hired a wheelchair so I can get round the shops etc - crutches OK for short medium distances. Suddenly I'm invisble!! Which bit of 'there's a lass pushing her Dad in a wheelchair MOVE OUT OF THE WAY' is that difficult! It's like biking too close to the kerb - you're invisible; off their visual radar.
Hoping to get an office laptop so I can work from home; 6 weeks inactivity does not appeal.
|
Femur huh? Old mans break that one!
All the best for a speedy one.
|
>> A week ago I watched the world from the saddle of my Brompton. Today I've
>> been observing from a hired wheelchair.
>>
>> Shuttling from station to car on way home last Tuesday I lost the bike on
>> a patch of wet car park decking. Not fast but I think I touched a
>> brake to allow a car to go in front.
That's where you went wrong.
You should have just ridden in front of it, like most cyclists - cars don't fall over when emergency braking, unlike 2 wheeled vehicles......
;-)
Get well soon BTW
|
Sheissglumpwaregts, what terrible luck Bromptonaut.
Speediest of recoveries!
|
|
Get well soon Brompt.No more cycling for a while at least you didn't bang your head.
|
|
Dem bones dem bones.............dem dry bones!! Sorry matey couldn't resist. Get well soon. (0:-:0)
|
Ow! Sorry to hear.
"I touched a brake to allow a car to go in front."
As we say in our house, 'no good deed goes unpunished'.. :-(
|
Sorry to hear about that m8y, and here's wishing you a speedy recovery.
My ole mum used to say "you never know what's around the corner" :(
Were the tartar nurses saucy to you in any way I wonder :)
|
Get well soon, Bromptonaut!
Sorry to hear about your accident, but thank you for an interesting post which we could all think seriously about.
|
Bad luck Bromps.
Hope you mend well. Do Brompton's do a tricycle?
|
Sounds like he needs stabilisers !
All the best Brompy.......can we all sign your virtual plaster cast ?
Ted
|
|
Get well soon Bromp ! Getting off that way not to be recommended then?
|
You have my sympathy Bromptonaut. I've come a cropper too in the most innocuous of circumstances before and hit the ground like a sack of....spuds. Not nice.
At least you're not missing any decent weather!
|
|
Nasty - hope it repairs quickly and you'll be piloting a two wheeler soon....hope no-one saw it happen IYKWIM....
|
|
I broke my clavicle coming off a bike once as well. Wasn't a Brompton tho, it was a Ducati!
|
|
Get well soon Bromptonaut!
|
Get well soon!
Er; would you like me to look after your bike, you know, keep it oiled and that?
I've never had a folder - sob.
|
There's more to this major operation lark than meets the eye.
My consultant told me it will be up to a year before I know the full extent of my recovery, and I reckon he's right.
Eight months in, I'm still gaining extra movement in the joint.
Although I expect Bromp's pinned and plated joint will recover faster than my entirely new one.
Also in Bromp's favour is he was fit and well the second before he hit the ground.
The muscles around my joint had wasted due to me being more or less laid up for a couple of months before the op, and it takes a long time to build them back up.
Bromp is not frightened of a bit of exercise, which will also stand him in good stead.
|
|
Sorry to hear that, Brompton. What rotten luck!
|
Hope you recover soon, B.
I know what you mean about invisible: Mrs Madf in crutches after hip op 7 weeks ago (NHS v good). Suddenly she's a non person ..
|
|
Unlucky, Brompton. What was the surface btw? Decking, as in timber? Firefox has just crashed in sympathy. See if this gets through:)
|
now you see if it had proper size wheels, control would probably have been kept and Bromp would be currently at his desk wage slaving.
Damn dangerous those scooter things.
|
Was toying with the idea of buying a folder. I tried a Brompton but thought it was not brilliant in terms of stability. Moulton I borrowed for a few days from a fellow clubman was much better. Went off the idea. Asked the question - Do I really need more than 4 bikes?
Some diesel on the decking maybe. Lots of reps motors are diesel powered nowadays.
Enjoy the break from normality.
Happy Cycling Phil I
|
|
I had to use a wheelchair a little while back and what struck me was how important tyre pressures were to making progress, not to mention getting a lightweight chair. My nans lightweight job is far superior to the standard muscle builders.
|
>> now you see if it had proper size wheels, control would probably have been kept
>> and Bromp would be currently at his desk wage slaving.
>>
I'd go along with that, the higher centre of gravity on a small wheeler makes a lock-up more likely.
Bad luck and best wishes for a speedy recovery Brompt.
|
Now this is what I call a proper wheelchair.......
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSHZhgram2E&feature=related
Get well soon old chap......
|
|
as the above....get well soon dude
|
Thanks to all for their good wishes. Greatly appreciated.
Iffy's comment about being fit until I hit the deck is spot on; hospital said much same thing. Hips are certainly an old man's thing. Was on a ward bay of 6. One other guy about my age who must have been in either a motorbike or industrial accident. Others were all over 80, two of whom had quite severe dementia. One however, b1925, was sharp as a tack and was telling the nurses about his war service in Singapore.
Admission via A&E was an education. Mercifully too early for the drunks but why FFS do people think ripping off a fingernail warrants immediate treatment? Needs much more aggressive triageing; see your GP tomorrow and here's a flea in your ear as well!!
|
Hospital A&E queues and triaging is almost deliberately in place to discourage the broken fingernail brigade.
Go rolling in there with something life threatening and serious and you will zipped through in an instant. My local one anyway.
And I have seen all too much of it, I am a tad accident prone.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 12 Jul 12 at 10:02
|
I guess I wasn't initially seen as serious. Break was undisplaced and I reported a fall with severe bruising - I was almost walking after a dose of Co-Codamol. In fact even having my leg 'felt up' by a (rather attractive) nurse didn't disclose anything. But I was sent for an x-ray to confirm.
Once the x-rays were back I was in a cubicle with an orthopod in pretty sharp order.
|
>>I am a tad accident prone.
Thats a good attribute for a train-spotter! ;-)
|
|
I have already been laid up for a week with a severe ankle sprain (a 1.5 hour A&E visit - which included triage, X-ray and nurse practitioner) after jumping off a vantage point.
|
|
My wife says she's accident prone. I say she's a clumsy, er, um, female person.
|
A Change of View - Zero
