Watch out for ice - broken hip content!
Discussion
So here I am sat in my chair in my room in Southmead hospital with a broken hip 
Set off on what appeared to be a lovely Sunday morning for our usual club ride, full of excitement having not been out for a few weeks due to the arrival of our son.
We'd been out an hour or so and had been sticking to the main roads to try avoid any ice. The sun was up and the roads were looking clear so we turned off a busy road down near the M5, only on cresting a small brow we were greeted with a slight downhill covered in sheet ice that just seemed to come out of nowhere.
The guy next to me went down and I can't remember if I panic breaked or not but before I knew it I was down too, quite hard and awkward it seems.
I didn't bang my head so was fully conscious but I just couldn't move, 4 others came down and luckily they were all ok, they shook themselves down and sensing something was amiss with me carefully moved me off the road onto the verge.
An ambulance was called as my leg just wouldn't move and couldn't bear any weight. Luckily they arrived quickly as it was b
d cold on that bit of wet grass especially with the shock setting in.
A few mouthfuls of gas and air had me on the stretcher and en route to A&E.
I was seen very quickly and carted off for an x-ray, first impressions weren't good when the radiographer said she could see quite a nasty fracture.
From there it all moved on quickly, the nature of my break and my age meant they wanted to operate ASAP, so Sunday avo I was in theatre to have 3 pins put through my hip to re-attach the ball joint.
Coming round from GA was an experience I'd like to forget, horrible feeling and to make it worse they elected not to plumb a catheter into me so come the early hours of the morning I was busting for a pee with no cooperation from my bladder. The relief when that finally went in was bliss!
So it's morning 2 since my op and the physios just came in to get me up off my sorry ass in bed and onto a chair, that was quite a struggle I can tell you.
My right thigh just feels numb and doesn't want to play ball but I need to be as active as I can to help things along.
The timing was never going to be good but with a 2 week old son at home I really feel for my wife, but she's being great so far, luckily we have lots of friends and family nearby to help out.
I've got around 12 weeks on crutches to look forward to, my planned Alps trip in May won't be happening but at least I'm still here.
Take care guys.
Set off on what appeared to be a lovely Sunday morning for our usual club ride, full of excitement having not been out for a few weeks due to the arrival of our son.
We'd been out an hour or so and had been sticking to the main roads to try avoid any ice. The sun was up and the roads were looking clear so we turned off a busy road down near the M5, only on cresting a small brow we were greeted with a slight downhill covered in sheet ice that just seemed to come out of nowhere.
The guy next to me went down and I can't remember if I panic breaked or not but before I knew it I was down too, quite hard and awkward it seems.
I didn't bang my head so was fully conscious but I just couldn't move, 4 others came down and luckily they were all ok, they shook themselves down and sensing something was amiss with me carefully moved me off the road onto the verge.
An ambulance was called as my leg just wouldn't move and couldn't bear any weight. Luckily they arrived quickly as it was b
d cold on that bit of wet grass especially with the shock setting in. A few mouthfuls of gas and air had me on the stretcher and en route to A&E.
I was seen very quickly and carted off for an x-ray, first impressions weren't good when the radiographer said she could see quite a nasty fracture.
From there it all moved on quickly, the nature of my break and my age meant they wanted to operate ASAP, so Sunday avo I was in theatre to have 3 pins put through my hip to re-attach the ball joint.
Coming round from GA was an experience I'd like to forget, horrible feeling and to make it worse they elected not to plumb a catheter into me so come the early hours of the morning I was busting for a pee with no cooperation from my bladder. The relief when that finally went in was bliss!
So it's morning 2 since my op and the physios just came in to get me up off my sorry ass in bed and onto a chair, that was quite a struggle I can tell you.
My right thigh just feels numb and doesn't want to play ball but I need to be as active as I can to help things along.
The timing was never going to be good but with a 2 week old son at home I really feel for my wife, but she's being great so far, luckily we have lots of friends and family nearby to help out.
I've got around 12 weeks on crutches to look forward to, my planned Alps trip in May won't be happening but at least I'm still here.
Take care guys.
Matt_N said:
So here I am sat in my chair in my room in Southmead hospital with a broken hip
I fell off on ice this morning, hit my wrist hard.Thought I might have needed to visit you earlier as it hurt like hell, it still hurts but I'm pretty sure it isn't broken.
Best of luck getting better though, my mother is a physio so I'm going to say take all the physio you can get and DO THE EXERCISES THEY GIVE YOU!
Edited by Eddh on Tuesday 20th January 10:57
BGarside said:
Ouch. Sounds horrible. Get well soon.
Can I suggest some studded winter tyres? They are slow and noisy but keep you upright on hardpack snow and ice and using them means you can stick to the back roads and avoid the traffic on winter rides.
OP - get well soon, I came off on Saturday and don't know how I got away with a bruised elbow/shoulder/scratched side of helmet. (If I hadn't been wearing a helmet, would I have made more effort to not bang my head, and possibly exacerbating the strained neck muscles I feel now? Only kidding). I remember as I hit the deck and slid for what seemed an age, I could suddenly hear a car (it was 7 am in the country) and thought I need to get up and off the actual road with the bike pronto. It was a comedy cartoon attempt at standing up, picked up the bike (lost a handlebar stop, which I found, and the chain was off, but no other damage) and seemed to take foreverin my panicked state, but when I eventually turned to face the direction of the car it only just came into view.Can I suggest some studded winter tyres? They are slow and noisy but keep you upright on hardpack snow and ice and using them means you can stick to the back roads and avoid the traffic on winter rides.
Bgarside - might look into those tyres. I haven't been so keen to get out since Saturday, and the thought of being on busier roads because they are less likely to be icy is really not helping.
Good luck Matt- get well soon.
I was skirting suspicious looking patches on Sunday thinking, "I really don't want a month on crutches" :-(
As you said- sometimes it seems to come out of nowhere, awful stuff when on 2 wheels.
As above- you will hate the Physio but Do what they say, the difference is amazing.
I was skirting suspicious looking patches on Sunday thinking, "I really don't want a month on crutches" :-(
As you said- sometimes it seems to come out of nowhere, awful stuff when on 2 wheels.
As above- you will hate the Physio but Do what they say, the difference is amazing.
Studded tyres! I was on my Schwalbe touring studdies this morning and was able to cycle safely on sheet ice up and down hill. True they are heavy (980g), but the tread and compound mean they don't have to be 'that' slow - mine are on a MTB for my 15km each way commute.
They are very well worth while and the 'frying bacon' sound is quite nice too.
They are very well worth while and the 'frying bacon' sound is quite nice too.
Daveyraveygravey said:
Bgarside - might look into those tyres. I haven't been so keen to get out since Saturday, and the thought of being on busier roads because they are less likely to be icy is really not helping.
The beauty of using them if you can deliberately ride on icy or snowy roads and thereby avoid almost all the traffic, which ends up being funnelled onto the main roads which are gritted.Downsides are they run at low pressure & are heavy, so there's a lot of drag, but then again it helps to keep warm and get some exercise on a shorter ride.
Also tend to be large sizes, e.g; 700x35C or larger, so you need a bike with enough clearance.
It's kind of fun though to ride along on sheet ice and snow and have drivers and pedestrians staring incredulously at you, assuming you are some kind of cycling god
Thanks for the kind words guys.
Physio's have been round both mornings so far to get me up and about, spent most of today sat up in my chair but feeling tired now.
I am normally quite hesitant regarding ice but the cars were fine and the roads were clear, someone from the club looked at the historical weather for the day and it seems it stopped raining around 6am, then when it went clear the temp dropped and has just frozen certain parts.
Physio's have been round both mornings so far to get me up and about, spent most of today sat up in my chair but feeling tired now.
I am normally quite hesitant regarding ice but the cars were fine and the roads were clear, someone from the club looked at the historical weather for the day and it seems it stopped raining around 6am, then when it went clear the temp dropped and has just frozen certain parts.
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