Firstly thanks to all of you who sent me supportive
messages, these are much appreciated.
So, back to the two questions I posed.
Firstly "what happened?".
Until I get the bike back I can't say for sure. When the
cops heard that I had a head injury they impounded the bike for inspection.
Turns out they are a lot better at the "impounding" part than the
"inspecting" part. Friday hopefully.
The wheel locked up and I skidded for a considerable
distance. Near the end the rear came round and I "highsided". This
means I was thrown upwards and landed on my head & shoulder. I don't think
I was going that fast by this time.
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| The landing broke my collar bone. |
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| I'm in a simple sling |
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| My helmet split but note that there are no abrasion marks. |
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| My old combat jacket was cut off (I have no recollection of this) |
Secondly "am I ok"?
I returned to the hospital on Monday for an MRI scan. I
dozed in a waiting room for a couple of hours then they sent me home saying
they'd contact me later. I think I'm ok head-wise and I'm sure they do too
otherwise they'd have scanned me.
I went to the fracture clinic today and got an X ray.
Ideally the treatment for a broken collar bone is just putting your arm in a
sling until it heals. There was some talk of a surgical operation to plate the
bone but since I had good movement and strength and no nerve damage I'm sticking with the sling which suits me.
I was treated in Hairmyres hospital in East Kilbride and I
would like to thank the staff there who made my stay as pleasant as possible. I
had been in Hairmyres before, in 1981, when I had a much more serious accident
that required me to spent 3 months
there. I am pleased to report that the hospital has been re-built and is much
better than when I was there previously. It was old back then with still traces of
the red crosses painted on the roof. They were there to try to
persuade the Germans not to bomb it during WW2. The hospital's most famous patient
was George Orwell who was treated for tuberculosis there while he was writing
"Nineteen Eighty Four".
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| I don't usually sit about in my garden but I suppose I'll have to get used to it |
Sounds like a lot of tea drinking in your garden is in your near future. I am very glad to hear you are doing so well, especially with those nasty bruises.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised your helmet split like that. So glad you were wearing all the gear, and of course, that is why we do wear it all, just in case.
Thanks for keeping us posted.
I was surprised about the helmet. I think the protection is mostly from the lining that did protect me against injury.
DeleteI can't claim to have been wearing "all the gear". The jacket has no armour and I was only wearing cotton trousers. As I said luckily my speed when hitting the ground was low so there was no abrasion.
My wings will not be clipped. We have good local bus & train services and I have a free travel pass - so look out for a "Tale from the Road" on public transport. Not as exciting as the bike but you can have a drink!
Hopefully the cops will release my bike on Friday and I'll find out that the damage is.
Glad to hear you are on the mend! By the looks of it, there are worse places to sit, seems nice and peaceful to me!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised about the helmet, don't recognise the brand, perhaps you should drop them an email when you recover and show it to them.
Ride On at Hillington are having a classic motorcycle gathering/show on Sunday at Noon. Don't know if you are a)up for it or b) the bus pass will get you there, but it might be an excuse to get out for a bit! Rest well.
Nasty looking bruise, but you seem to heal well. And enjoying your lovely garden while recovering is not a bad thing. Take care and be better soon. Any tales from the road by any means of transport are welcome.
ReplyDeleteThe bruise looks bad but isn't painful. Even the broken collar bone isn't sore - a piece of cake compared to a broken leg! I only get pain if I move the arm a lot or try to lift a weight (which I shouldn't be doing anyway)
DeleteI've got the bike back so I'll do a post on the damage.
Speedy recovery! that is a fair old whack to split the shell of the helmet, although from what I have read you want the shell to dissipate the G force rather than transfer it directly to the brain like a super hard helmet of old so it may have done exactly as designed.
ReplyDeleteI think the helmet did its job. I (think) I impacted the road vertically and the lining minimised the G force. I had no bruising or abrasions on my skull but the old brain must have experienced a few Gs. As the saying goes "its not falling off that causes the damage, it's stopping abruptly"!
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