I will sort through each of the injuries sustained and give you an update on each:
Acetabular Fracture of The Pelvis:
What this means in English is that my right leg hit the car causing the femur bone to push into the pelvis with such force that it cracked it. Luckily the femur bone didn't break (it is the strongest bone in the body!!), but I did also suffer a haemotoma of the quad muscle.
This fracture meant that I could put no weight on my right leg, hence why I was in a wheelchair for a total of 8 weeks. The bone has healed somewhat, but the surgeon has said that pelvis fractures are a bit weird in that the bone will heald up 80% in the first year, then take another 20 years to heal up the last 20%.
From a day to day point of view the pelvis doesn't cause me many issues, however I can certainly feel it when climbing a ladder, or with some of the stretches I do. However, I can't feel it at all when riding my bike.
The haemotoma took about 5 weeks to fully heal, but all good there and no residual pain at all.
Two Broken Ribs:
These are all good now, they took about 4 weeks to heal properly and for me to feel no further pain. The worst thing about broken ribs is coughing or laughing, painful each time, but all good now!
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| My Collarbone Plate |
This was by far my worst injury. My leg/lower body hit the side of the car, then the momentum of my body flexed over and my shoulder hit the bonnet full force and totally smashed it.
I had this operated on the day after the accident where they put in a plate, and apparantly they had to remove approximately ten bone fragments.
As you can see from the Xray, the type of plate which I have is called a hook plate which goes under the shoulder joint which greatly restricts the shoulder movement I have.
I can't lift my arm above my shoulder and it took me two weeks to be able to reach my handlebars, and reaching for anything with a straight arm is very difficult (and painful).
Looking on the bright side - this plate is due to come out mid November so I can't wait!!
Broken Right Hand Pinky Finger:
They reset this on the day of the accident, but apparantly it didn't set properly, so I had surgery on it where they rebroke it, reset it, and placed two pins to hold it in place. The pins were in for 4 weeks, and since then it has been constant exercises to try and get movement back into it.
I am having physio on it every couple of weeks with daily exercises to do each time, and am slowly making progress and hope to get full movement back into it. I also have to wear a splint to bed everynight to try and help it get to straighten as well.
However, at this stage it isn't causing me too much anguish and I don't notice it while riding my bike.
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| First Ride up to Mt. Lofty Summit |
At the start of September the shoulder doctor gave me the go ahead to start riding on the road again, so although I had aerobic fitness from the indoor trainer, the leg strength was pretty weak.
However I have slowly being getting out there, and along with the Mega Spin classes which I am doing, progressivley building up the strength and fitness.
After not riding up a hill for 3.5 months I went up Greenhill Rd yesterday for the first time, just to see how I was progressing. I was stoked to ride up there just 1min2secs slower than my best time ever!!
However, I used to be able to ride up this road 4 times in a row, and after yesterdays effort, I almost had a coronry by the time I reached Mt. Lofty Summit, however I am making progress!!
To Make A Donation Towards My Beat Cancer Tour:
