Hi all,
Been a very long while since I last posted here, so hope everyone is still all good. After a long period of not cycling at all, I got back into it at the beginning of this year and made good progress with the aim of doing a wee charity bike ride (either the LEPRA edinburgh - St andrews or the Pedal for scotland long course) this summer.
Then I had a crash. Just turning off a main road into a side street, the bike wheel hit a bit of uneven or slippery ground (I think this is what must have happened) and suddenly I was off and lying in the middle of the street, with that weird sense of hyper-reality shock that follows every bike accident. Two very helpful guys from the local car dealership saw I was lying there and ran over. We quickly found I couldn't move, so they covered my in their jackets and rang the ambulance. My left leg was starting to be a bit painful by this point and was 'stuck' in a bent position. I tried to straighten it but felt some deeply ominous crunching sensation in my hip and thought better of it. Ambulance duly came and with liberal amounts of nitrous oxide they got me onto their stretcher.
Hospital came next (the paramedics had also given my liberal amounts of morphine by this time) and a triage nurse straightened the leg. Even with the morphine this hurt a wee bit. Then an X-ray and the verdict was a fractured femur just below the hip. Thought it was really hard to break a femur and I'm puzzled by how I did it travelling at low speed, but there you go.
To cut a long story short the next day I had an op to insert a long nail into the femur (a Gamma Nail I think it's called). That was two weeks ago and I'm now on crutches but able to put a wee bit of weight onto the leg, which is good. Hoping to get back on the bike in the next 2-3 months and carry on where I left off, albeit inevitably more cautious.
It was my birthday when I was in hospital and irony of ironies, two unconnected friends and family members had bought me....a new saddle each. You've got to laugh.
Mel.
Been a very long while since I last posted here, so hope everyone is still all good. After a long period of not cycling at all, I got back into it at the beginning of this year and made good progress with the aim of doing a wee charity bike ride (either the LEPRA edinburgh - St andrews or the Pedal for scotland long course) this summer.
Then I had a crash. Just turning off a main road into a side street, the bike wheel hit a bit of uneven or slippery ground (I think this is what must have happened) and suddenly I was off and lying in the middle of the street, with that weird sense of hyper-reality shock that follows every bike accident. Two very helpful guys from the local car dealership saw I was lying there and ran over. We quickly found I couldn't move, so they covered my in their jackets and rang the ambulance. My left leg was starting to be a bit painful by this point and was 'stuck' in a bent position. I tried to straighten it but felt some deeply ominous crunching sensation in my hip and thought better of it. Ambulance duly came and with liberal amounts of nitrous oxide they got me onto their stretcher.
Hospital came next (the paramedics had also given my liberal amounts of morphine by this time) and a triage nurse straightened the leg. Even with the morphine this hurt a wee bit. Then an X-ray and the verdict was a fractured femur just below the hip. Thought it was really hard to break a femur and I'm puzzled by how I did it travelling at low speed, but there you go.
To cut a long story short the next day I had an op to insert a long nail into the femur (a Gamma Nail I think it's called). That was two weeks ago and I'm now on crutches but able to put a wee bit of weight onto the leg, which is good. Hoping to get back on the bike in the next 2-3 months and carry on where I left off, albeit inevitably more cautious.
It was my birthday when I was in hospital and irony of ironies, two unconnected friends and family members had bought me....a new saddle each. You've got to laugh.
Mel.
- so at least that's something.
.
