Well, a couple weeks ago I had my first proper off on a road bike in 10 years year round road riding.
Am currently up in Aberdeen and the weather was showing circa 10 degrees so thought why not.
Was on the A939, a road we all enjoyed on the extended NC500 forum tour a few years ago. Had ridden the same route the week prior without any issue, but on this occasion, with no outside temperature warning on the XR, I came over a particularly undulating road at moderate speed, and as soon as the road came back into view the dreaded dry sheen of frost / ice ? the bike was virtually upright at the time and all I had time to do was think ?oh shit? ? in what felt like the blink of an eye the bike hit the deck and on impact I knew my shoulder was screwed, before coming to a stop.
I was fully dressed for the occasion, with a Hideout D3O equipped textiles, plenty of warm layers and a Helite Turtle 2 airbag vest for good measure.
Thankfully, another motorcyclist and a driver had seen me come off so stoped to help. First thing I thought when I got off was ?must press pause on the music so they don?t hear the questionable music choice blurting out of my helmet lol?.
The bike did far better than I did in the crash, so they picked it up for me. I was playing down the injury as that pride part of my brain was just wanting to be left alone.
I managed to get on the bike and with my other hand lift my right hand onto the throttle. The bike started and I selected the fasted Waze route back to my flat ? 1 hour 15 mins ? f*ck ? so I gingerly road off, my foot flapping away like it was having some sort of fit and my shoulder clicking away. Check the ETA and of course it?s only gone down by 2 mins ? literally felt like the longest 1.5 hour journey I?ve ever had lol.
Was overtaken by cars and even a van on the way back, as my brain was in total self preservation mode, didn?t feel like I could feel the bike or read the road conditions, probably analogous to a bike going into limp mode, literally!
Anyway, eventually I got back to the flat, parked up and with considerable difficulty managed to put the disc lock on the bike. Then, with even more difficulty I managed to get most of the bike kit off. Had a feel of the shoulder and look in the mirror and thought ?collarbone is fine and no signs of dislocation, reckon it?s the shoulder blade?.
So, a trip to A&E followed by an X-ray and CT scan revealed a rather nasty intra-articular glenoid fracture of my shoulder blade, basically the shoulder socket was smashed up.
The on call orthopaedic surgeon said ?my goodness me, you?ve really done a number on your shoulder haven?t you, I haven?t seen a chunk that big taken out of a glenoid in many years? ? terrific.
The crash happened on a Friday afternoon, typical, but I had to wait until Wednesday as needed to be seen by the main shoulder specialist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, as these fractures are apparently very rare and quite complex.
The whole operation took circa 4 hours, and as you can see from the photos, a quite substantial exposure is needed to fix a relatively small, but very deep and important structure.
I was told after that in order to do the repair, the surgeon had to detach part of my rotator cuff, so that?s ordinarily an operation in itself, so I?ve got to be careful atm as really can?t damage the repaired tendon insertions (where the muscles attach to the bone to move the limb). Other cool (yea let?s go with ?cool?) parts of the operation, is that the anaesthetist did a nerve block on my upper neck to temporarily numb and paralyse the whole arm, and even the right side of my diaphragm! That lasted circa 10 hours, so needed supplemental O2 after the operation as my sats were a bit low firing on one rather than two cylinder effectively.
Now one rather unpleasant surprise from the operation, which given I?ve had a few operations previously came as a bit of a shock, was urinary retention over the first night. Basically, the urge was there but no matter what not a drop was coming out, so that meant having a catheter overnight. The nurse that did it was absolutely fantastic, but if you?ve never had one before I can tell you it?s not comfortable and the thought of poor patients that need to have them for extended periods of time is dreadful.
I?m going back to the fracture clinic on Tuesday for my first post op checkup, so will have fresh X rays to see what the new metalwork looks like, and ?hopefully? I?ll have some encouraging news from the surgeon. The only thing I?m concerned about in the medium term is stability, I?m not fussed with full range of motion, but I want the shoulder to feel solid. Long term, there?s a much increased risk of arthritis in this shoulder, but that may or may not be something to deal with waaay down the line.
So take home message, is always wear ATGATT and microclimates are a genuine thing, so if it?s winter just err on the side of caution no matter what, even if things are looking and feeling good.
Oli
Am currently up in Aberdeen and the weather was showing circa 10 degrees so thought why not.
Was on the A939, a road we all enjoyed on the extended NC500 forum tour a few years ago. Had ridden the same route the week prior without any issue, but on this occasion, with no outside temperature warning on the XR, I came over a particularly undulating road at moderate speed, and as soon as the road came back into view the dreaded dry sheen of frost / ice ? the bike was virtually upright at the time and all I had time to do was think ?oh shit? ? in what felt like the blink of an eye the bike hit the deck and on impact I knew my shoulder was screwed, before coming to a stop.
I was fully dressed for the occasion, with a Hideout D3O equipped textiles, plenty of warm layers and a Helite Turtle 2 airbag vest for good measure.
Thankfully, another motorcyclist and a driver had seen me come off so stoped to help. First thing I thought when I got off was ?must press pause on the music so they don?t hear the questionable music choice blurting out of my helmet lol?.
The bike did far better than I did in the crash, so they picked it up for me. I was playing down the injury as that pride part of my brain was just wanting to be left alone.
I managed to get on the bike and with my other hand lift my right hand onto the throttle. The bike started and I selected the fasted Waze route back to my flat ? 1 hour 15 mins ? f*ck ? so I gingerly road off, my foot flapping away like it was having some sort of fit and my shoulder clicking away. Check the ETA and of course it?s only gone down by 2 mins ? literally felt like the longest 1.5 hour journey I?ve ever had lol.
Was overtaken by cars and even a van on the way back, as my brain was in total self preservation mode, didn?t feel like I could feel the bike or read the road conditions, probably analogous to a bike going into limp mode, literally!
Anyway, eventually I got back to the flat, parked up and with considerable difficulty managed to put the disc lock on the bike. Then, with even more difficulty I managed to get most of the bike kit off. Had a feel of the shoulder and look in the mirror and thought ?collarbone is fine and no signs of dislocation, reckon it?s the shoulder blade?.
So, a trip to A&E followed by an X-ray and CT scan revealed a rather nasty intra-articular glenoid fracture of my shoulder blade, basically the shoulder socket was smashed up.
The on call orthopaedic surgeon said ?my goodness me, you?ve really done a number on your shoulder haven?t you, I haven?t seen a chunk that big taken out of a glenoid in many years? ? terrific.
The crash happened on a Friday afternoon, typical, but I had to wait until Wednesday as needed to be seen by the main shoulder specialist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, as these fractures are apparently very rare and quite complex.
The whole operation took circa 4 hours, and as you can see from the photos, a quite substantial exposure is needed to fix a relatively small, but very deep and important structure.
I was told after that in order to do the repair, the surgeon had to detach part of my rotator cuff, so that?s ordinarily an operation in itself, so I?ve got to be careful atm as really can?t damage the repaired tendon insertions (where the muscles attach to the bone to move the limb). Other cool (yea let?s go with ?cool?) parts of the operation, is that the anaesthetist did a nerve block on my upper neck to temporarily numb and paralyse the whole arm, and even the right side of my diaphragm! That lasted circa 10 hours, so needed supplemental O2 after the operation as my sats were a bit low firing on one rather than two cylinder effectively.
Now one rather unpleasant surprise from the operation, which given I?ve had a few operations previously came as a bit of a shock, was urinary retention over the first night. Basically, the urge was there but no matter what not a drop was coming out, so that meant having a catheter overnight. The nurse that did it was absolutely fantastic, but if you?ve never had one before I can tell you it?s not comfortable and the thought of poor patients that need to have them for extended periods of time is dreadful.
I?m going back to the fracture clinic on Tuesday for my first post op checkup, so will have fresh X rays to see what the new metalwork looks like, and ?hopefully? I?ll have some encouraging news from the surgeon. The only thing I?m concerned about in the medium term is stability, I?m not fussed with full range of motion, but I want the shoulder to feel solid. Long term, there?s a much increased risk of arthritis in this shoulder, but that may or may not be something to deal with waaay down the line.
So take home message, is always wear ATGATT and microclimates are a genuine thing, so if it?s winter just err on the side of caution no matter what, even if things are looking and feeling good.
Oli
