Recovery from an injury

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Tom Hooper

Active Member
Location
northumberland
sorry in advance for the long story;


So on the 21st of august I came off my bike and hit a tree, helmet saved my life but i fractured 5 vertebra t4-t9.so iv was laid up in hospial for a week then a few weeks at home before i was allowed to move about freely, i should be fully back to health for next spring according to my consultant, but the pain will get less and less, the hardest part is doing nothing i consider myself a workaholic but iv had to pack my job in, so the sooner i can get out and do a few miles the better. physio says now that I can walk and stand up for up to three hours i should look to get back on my bike. I’m not so much interested in how to regain my fitness as I’m 23 that will come back with time, but i am looking at how to get over the mental barrier i went around the block today about 800yds in total and i kept thinking the wheel was going to come off or that something bad would happen, will this vanish with time or am i going to have to pack it in?

any advice is welcome.
 

simmi

Über Member
I think you have already taken the biggest step in actually getting back on your bike.

I can't give you any advice but I would just like to applaud your courage:bravo:
 

RWright

Guru
Location
North Carolina
Getting back on was a brave first step. Take it easy and don't push things, be careful in traffic and elsewhere. Good luck with your recovery.
 

mrandmrspoves

Middle aged bald git.
Location
Narfuk
After such a major injury you may never get to the point where you don't feel vulnerable on a bicycle. This is no bad thing - because you are vulnerable. ..... so we are looking at being aware of the risks, acknowledging them and then taking action to reduce the risks to an acceptable level. The fact that you were wearing a helmet shows that at some level you had already recognised thar there was a risk of injury. 30 years ago I was hit by a car while cycling with my Grandad, he was hit by the car too. I sustained a smashed up knee, my Grandad was killed. Sad of course....but enough to stop me cycling? No.
I acknowledge that I might get killed while riding my bike....but I enjoy cycling, I see the risk as low and I know that I would rather die out on my bike enjoying myself than die of a heart attack or stroke brought on by lack of exercise.
Good luck in your recovery..
 

PaulSB

Legendary Member
I couldn't begin to give advice on how to approach this but can tell you my own experience.

My smash was about 4 years ago, hit a car at about 15-17 mph. Broke my hand so nothing too serious unlike yourself. It took me six months to regain my confidence on a bike. Initially every manoeuvre made me nervous, left / right turns, cars approaching junctions where I had priority, sharp bends I would normally sail round, everything worried me. I had become much more cautious than previously.

After 6 months or so back on the bike my confidence returned and I now don't have any real concerns. I do though descend more cautiously and I think my sense of anticipation is higher than previously.
 

Biker Joe

Über Member
So sorry for you. Nasty experience.
An accident like that is a real confidence basher.
That was very good, getting back on your bike. Little steps,little steps is the way to go.
Every cyclist tackles falls in their own way.
When it happened to me, I told myself," It's only a bloody bike. I've ridden miles without anything happening. Get on with it".
Seemed to help.
Every one is different and I hope you overcome your mental barrier. Think positive. Trundle out on your bike and enjoy.
I wish you a very speedy recovery and many miles of happy cycling.
 
Location
Pontefract
As Joe says step at a time, I had a spill a year or two back, just some serious cuts and grazes, nothing broken (still dont know how it happened), no damage to bike (well shifter had moved a little) so as I was a good 4 miles from home I just got back on and rode, all be it a lot slower, mind I was slower then anyway.
Hope your recover goes well.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Can take a while. Best advice is go out when it's quiet after rush hour/school run - 10am. Do a circuit and see how you feel, then do a little more.

I had a smash 4 years ago, but was back on the bike next day, although it was a few months before I wasn't so twitchy. I had an operation for said injury (two years after the crash) and I got back on the bike when the physio allowed me, and took it easy, then did a little more, and followed his recommendations. I did, however, ride out of rush hour, or say late evening. I didn't get back to commuting to work for 7 weeks.

Follow instructions, and don't over do it.

PS, by tree, I assume you were MTB'ing. Blooming pesky those trees how they jump out in front of you !
 
I had one nasty accident as a teenager at uni, when I was knocked off my bike by a car after it over took me in the right hand lane of a dual carriageway and then turned left without indicating across my path. I regained come level of consciousness in the ambulance on the way to hospital, and other than a fractured skull and extensive bruising was pretty much lucky to walk away. It took a while to get back on a bike, but necessity was the need rather than anything else at the time.

In Feb last year I was attacked by a pack of dogs whilst cycling around the world - or trying to as it ended up being aborted. The dog tore through a major artery in my leg, punctured a major vein & severed a major nerve - only my lycra stopped it removing about 1/3 of the back of my calf leaving just enough skin still attached at the bottom to leave the skin (mostly) viable. I needed over 100 stitches - I am still not able to walk far, but due to the nature of the injury can cycle ironically.

Recovery is time consuming and takes determination. Both times I have gotten back on the bike as soon as possible, but it take time to regain confidence. At the end of the day it will come down to how much you want to get back on the bike - for me the determination is to continue what I started - cycling around the world; I was 1 year in and still loving it. You need to find the reason you want to continue cycling and learn to trust your bike (was it a mechanical failure, "i kept thinking the wheel was going to come off ") and learn to trust your body again. For me it is that later that is the issue. I don't yet fully trust my injured leg - the scars are very visible and I can not guarentee that I can push off with it or that it is strong enough to pull out in front of a car in the distance, so routinely wait until I know for 100% I can get out safely. I often wait much longer than I need to, trust will come with time when I have more confidence in a leg I can not fully feel or control.

Do you have an explanation for why the incident happened or is it still a 'mystery'. Mentally, you will heal better when what happened can be explained. For me the dogs' pack behaviour was odd for the circumstances and they did not act as the should have done and the only 'explanation' I have been able to come up with was it was simply 'one bad dog' which regretfully was the pack leader (there was a rabies outbreak in that area which could also have explained it however, I don't want to go down that avenue) but I can't hold that one dog's behaviour against the rest of the canine population. I am still cautious around dogs when I am on my bike though and guess I always will be.
 

Lanzecki

Über Member
As with any accident it's going to take time to feel confidant again. Everyone's stated above that you should take your time and find some quiet easy routes. I'd avoid the night for a while though.

Give it a few week/months and you'll wonder why you were tense. Go and enjoy riding again with no goals except enjoying yourself.
 
OP
OP
Tom Hooper

Tom Hooper

Active Member
Location
northumberland
Wow, thank you all so much for the responses, it means a lot.



I see i am not the only one to have had this problem.

I blame myself for my accident, i was descending down a hill coming up to a bend when my back wheel started to slide on what i can only assume was diesel, I was alongside a lorry(which I had just got in front of at a small roundabout so I wouldn’t have to overtake it when I came to the town) so didn’t have the option of just letting the bike and myself slide and get a serious case of road rash so somehow kept myself upright started to brake and my back wheel started to slide again so stopped braking and kept my bike upright, when i looked up i was going into a tree i leaned as far right as i could away from the tree hit half my helmet on the tree but my front brake arch hit a large branch flipped me over down a small hill and landed on my back shoulders first, i then did the worst thing i could and ran up the bank and collapsed on the pavement. This is when it hit me i knew i was in trouble. Some kind women from our local dog shelter came out as they though a car had crashed from the noise to find me. and waited half an hour for an ambulance to come for me.

i don’t think it was a mechanical issue that caused the accident. i just had the date of the 7th January 2013 i was going to get on my bike before then, i believe i have been over thinking the situation and have had nightmares about getting back on the bike and when i finally got back on they all started to surface again every time i heard a creak i thought something is going wrong. This is when I thought the wheel might be coming off or I was going to fall.



after reading all these messages this morning my girlfriend said lets go out for a ride, she cannot stand the thought of me going back on my bike, but yet she wants to help me get over the fears i am having, so i have just got back from doing a loop, we started with going down the river where i felt every bump and stone along the path and the vibration through my back was numbing but bearable. i thought we would be tuning back as soon as we reached the end, but i was actually enjoying myself, so we push up and along on to the country lane, we continued along until the we reached the coast, where i could once again pull my leg warmers back up. iv lost a lot of weight, not that iv ever had any to lose. we turned back but this time decided to skip the river out and go along the busy road, i wasn’t bothered about the cars, i was overthinking about looking for potholes, bumps, wet road markings, and very small hills to go down, where i just couldn’t give in and let myself freewheel i had to slow myself. if anything i slowed my girlfriend down today, she was on an old specialised hard tail from 2006 i think. i never thought I’d be able to do a whole 10miles, but with the push out the door and the added security of someone tagging along i managed it.



i am now laid up in bed a tad stiff but nothing tablets and a bottle of bus won’t help. i plan on possibly going out again later this week nothing longer but possibly try and get myself to go faster my legs can do it but my head says no.



thank you all again,

enjoy and be safe
 
Great to hear you got out. just keep repeating the same 10 miles until it gets easy. It took me several months and various set backs but I can now managed 40 miles without too many problems. getting past 50 miles is still difficult with leg issues being the biggest problem.

...have had nightmares about getting back on the bike and when i finally got back on they all started to surface again every time i heard a creak i thought something is going wrong. This is when I thought the wheel might be coming off or I was going to fall.

Can you honestly say to yourself 100% that you trust the bike? Is it worth your peace of mind to get it serviced and checked over? I ask because a lot of it can by phsycological and getting it serviced and someone saying to you it is fine - or this needs to be looked at, I found this was loose and tightened it, may just help to give you some reasurrance and allow you to relax a touch more whilst riding which will make it much easier for you which will make it less stressful and even easier... Also I am assuming these nightmares are not ones waking you up in the middle of the night?
best wishes and keep at it.
 
Life is a risk. Life would be crap if you were to eliminate all risks. This is why health and safety people are so miserable, pedantic and irritating bunch of &*^&%^s. I would be too. Just get out there and to hell with the consequences I say.
 
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