Pop goes the Vertebrae

On Sunday I was heading to meet a friend for a gentle ride when a car failed to stop at a ‘T’ junction and pulled out into me. At first I was more surprised than anything because I had seen the car pulling up to the junction and had thought nothing of it. It is a wide open junction with nothing to obscure her view, and although there was some fog around the visibility was good. As I got past the junction I saw the bonnet appear on my left just before it hit me but had no time to react and went over it before landing in the middle of the road. My bike went flying and landed a good ten meters from me in the middle of the road. My first reaction was to bounce straight onto my feet shouting “What the F#$% are you doing. Then I realised me back was sore and collapsed to the floor. Fortunately a nurse was passing and took control of the situation telling the driver to call for an ambulance and police while she concentrated on keeping me warm and talking. At this point I was struggling to take deep breaths and talking was hard and painful. Once the ambulance arrived I was strapped to a wooden board and wheeled into the ambulance. It took another 15 minutes to get control of my breathing before the police could come in and take my account of the accident and we could head to hospital. It took so long for this that Emma beat us to hospital in our crappy old Landrover and started to worry that something had gone wrong on the way in!


Once at hospital the speed of activity didn’t really change. I didn’t see a doctor for an hour or more and the back of my head was starting to hurt more than my back from resting on the solid wooden board for so long. I finally had a couple of sessions in X-ray before I was told the good news: I had no fracture and could sit up. Once sitting up they asked me to move my head a bit and I said I was still feeling pain in my back when moving. The doctors then took another look at the X-rays and told me that, actually, there was a fracture, and I shouldn’t be sitting up! Confidence inspiring or what!?


At this point they also said they needed me out of my kit to do a physical examination but since I couldn’t move they would have to cut it off. With each meat-fisted snip of my finest winter kit I was mentally counting how much I had spent on it! My best Adidas tights, Columbia-Bikefood shorts and Gillet, Canterbury compression base layer and my favourite jersey were hacked to pieces by a merciless Staff Nurse! One was not amused! After a swift finger up my arse to check my sphincter was still working (still not entirely sure what that has to do with a spinal injury but it cheered up the attending trainee medics) and a bout of CT to get a picture of the fracture I was admitted to the trauma ward for the night.


The family and Emma went home at about 9pm and I was left to contemplate the events of the day. At this point I had still not seen a surgeon and was still in the dark as to how stable the fracture was and what measures would have to be taken. It was quite daunting thinking that I could have to have surgery and may not have got back on a bike within a year, if ever. Ignorance was definitely not bliss and however optimistic and friendly the overnight nurse was, I was worried.


Finally, at about 9am I was put out of my misery when the Spinal ward rounds wheeled into my room. 9am might not sound late but if you try lying on your back in an empty hospital room staring at a ceiling tile for 12 hours waiting for this kind of news, you would know what I mean. Fortunately they had good news for me and the fracture was stable enough for me to not need surgery and not even need a body brace. It was confirmed I had a wedge fracture of my T8 vertebrae, basically where the anterior portion has been squashed so the vertebrae is in the shape of a wedge. The schedule they gave me was: Home by the end of the day, do nothing for 1 month, do very little for the next month (although I could start doing some gentle swimming and physio in this time) and start doing some gentle cycling within 3 months. Mountain Biking would have to wait until March, just in time for the start of the season.


After a couple of visits from the physio to make sure I was capable for sitting up on my own and walking up a flight of stairs I was discharged, but not before a plummeting PO2, BP and blue lips did its best to keep me in for another night.


I have had loads of positive messages from friends family and team mates (and even the odd sponsor) wishing me a speedy recovery which has been great for my motivation. Hopefully I can thank them for their support by getting back to a race in the not too distant future. I will keep regular blogs updating everyone on my progress because, let’s face it, there’s bugger all else I can do for the next 3 months to justify my place on the team!