Broken Wrists Summer of fun!!

Cpt Spudgun

Hey guys,
Had a good old stack in Germnay 2 weeks ago on a dh road trip with the lads. Firstly if your thinking of going abroad my sure you get some proper insurance, luckly I had. CANT STRESS THAT ENOUGH. Has to be DH specific too. However, the hospital in Winterberg rocked!

Being back in the uk isn't that good, however Salford Royal is a joke! Anyway, enough of that, I've got 4 screws in various places in left hand and k-wires in right wrist. After a full day at the above mentioned hospital (8.30-14.30, I had the 8.30 appointment!!!) The doc tells me i'm gonna have to have more surgery next week to have a plate fitted in my wrist. He reckons riding might be a problem for the future! I'm not having it, so anyone else riding fully loaded with plates???

Cheers..

swampi101

ouch! sounds nasty, what happened?

last insurance i had to get included cover incase we got hijacked

OH NO Dan

Sorry to hear that mate. Doctors will say you shouldnt ride but i bet you'll have no worries.
Hope surgery goes smoothly for you.

What exactly happened btw?

Cpt Spudgun

OH NO Dan wrote:

Sorry to hear that mate. Doctors will say you shouldnt ride but i bet you'll have no worries.
Hope surgery goes smoothly for you.

What exactly happened btw?

Theres a newish drop at the bottom of the dh @ Winterberg bike park. I came ambling round the berm before, instead of going @ warp speed. Got a bit nosey on it and stayed clinging to the bars by the time I put arms out to stop it was all over. Should have know better!! I'll put it right next i'm there!!!

P-Jay

Welcome to the club!

Binned it at Afan and just had a plate fitted in my left wrist and a massive one in my right elbow.

Not back to riding yet, but there's zero doubt in my mind I will!!!

TBH they haven't said anything about a problem with my wrist, but now it's had a couple of weeks to bed in (4 to be exact) I don't think it's going to be a problem, I can hold the bars and brake easy enough on the left, I've even been for a short blast on my CBR (Honda, not Halfords).

My problem is the Elbow, if it doesn't start to heal properly the NHS want to fuse it in one position, what’ll pretty much end my MTB days, so balls to that! They can do an elbow replacement or I'll go private!

You've got to be a bit careful with the NHS I've found, the nurses are brilliant and so were the ambulance guys, but I get the feeling some of the surgeons sometimes look for easy fixes. I was told that if required, the only option would be to fuse the bones, normally I just take anything a doctor tells me as gospel, but with my only hobby on the line I took outside advice and it's by no means the only option, just the cheapest and easiest. I know the NHS is free and doesn't have a bottomless pot of money to fix us up, but dam it; I'm not having an arm I can't bend to save a couple of grand!

swampi101

yeah ive found the NHS tends to cut corners when it comes to surgery. that sucks about your elbow man, hopefully they wont have to do that.

just wondering, how long have you guys had to wait for an operation on broken bones on the NHS? I once had to wait 8 hours with a dislocated wrist and snapped arm, barely any painkillers and no food/drink.

GHill

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. What insurance did you get to cover you for DH?

And, if you don't mind a factious question, how do you manage to wipe your ar*e with two broken wrists?

P-Jay

swampi101 wrote:

yeah ive found the NHS tends to cut corners when it comes to surgery. that sucks about your elbow man, hopefully they wont have to do that.

just wondering, how long have you guys had to wait for an operation on broken bones on the NHS? I once had to wait 8 hours with a dislocated wrist and snapped arm, barely any painkillers and no food/drink.

I got deluxe treatment!

I'd done 20mgs of Morphine and a whole canister of gas and air within 30 mins. I guess an hour or so of "stabilising" because I was losing lots of blood out of the hole in my elbow, they let me have a quick chat with my mates and my Mum and in I went. My elbow took longer than they expected to fix so they couldn't do the wrist at the same time.

Week or so on a trauma ward, then a few days in a normal ward. My wrist op got cancelled a few times because they needed the theatre for emergencies, can't argue with that, did the wrist and home about 4-5 days later I think, it's all a bit blurry because of the all lovely drugs they were giving me.

Then the trouble started....

I way staying in Bridgend hospital because it's the nearest to Afan, but I wanted to do my physio in Cardiff where I live, that was a mistake. Cardiff lost my notes, so I have to chase it up myself, then they sent a physio to my house, nice women, but the home physios are more for you elderly types to help them do normal day to day stuff like get out of bed etc. She said I would be better off in Hospital because they've got loads of equipment to do it all, but she did give me some exorcises to do in the meantime.

I was meant to be going back next Tuesday at 3. Got a letter saying it was cancelled and to phone them to re-organise, called and called but no one picked up. So I though fuck 'um got in the car and went down there to bang some heads together!! They originally tried to fob me off with an appointment in September, oh no, you can sell that shit to some other sucka. So I'm going in Tuesday at 9 now!

Don't take a first offer from them for anything! And I've found that if you do anything over the phone the red-tape is unbelievable! But go there face-to-face and it just melts away.

swampi101

i dont beleive that they cause people who have had accidents like that so much hassle just to get themselves fixed. if the people on the other end of the phone were in that position it would drive them nuts. NHS is a big waste of time and money in my opinion.

and yes morphine is luurvely stuff :P but laughing gas is better. sounds like you got great treatment till you got booted out to Cardiff!

P-Jay

swampi101 wrote:

sounds like you got great treatment till you got booted out to Cardiff!

Too right! Princess of Wales Hospital - Bridgend FTW!!

The Amblulance guys asked me whether I wanted to go to Morrison or POW, I chose POW because it was nearer home, but otherwise they're the same distance from Afan.

If anyone bins it at Afan, ask to be taken to Bridgend, the Paramedic was a MTB'er, so was most of the theater staff! My physio said she's never seen such in depth theater notes (this is what they base the physio treatment on) I think they had my back wanting to get back on as soon a poss!

scarbs85

swampi101 wrote:

just wondering, how long have you guys had to wait for an operation on broken bones on the NHS? I once had to wait 8 hours with a dislocated wrist and snapped arm, barely any painkillers and no food/drink.

I had to wait over 24hours no food when I snapped my wrist playing a football match for my uni team. I had a temporary surgery to prevent any further nerve damagae (trapped between ends of the bone) and then was a 24hour wait to have the proper surgery done, pins and all. But to be fair to the NHS they did a cracking job on my wrist, and the delay was due to emergency surgery on a motorbiker who made a proper mess of himself.

Still, was a long and boring 24hours muddied up in my full football kit. Apparently when I first got in to hospital, my main concern was them not cutting the sleeve on my number 5 shirt! The morphine was numbing the pain at that point.....

swampi101

P-Jay wrote:

...the Paramedic was a MTB'er, so was most of the theater staff! My physio said she's never seen such in depth theater notes (this is what they base the physio treatment on) I think they had my back wanting to get back on as soon a poss!

awesome i think i might have a spectacular 'accident' just for that hell, if i make a mess of myself locally ill try and make them take me there!

Cpt Spudgun

TBH they haven't said anything about a problem with my wrist, but now it's had a couple of weeks to bed in (4 to be exact) I don't think it's going to be a problem, I can hold the bars and brake easy enough on the left, I've even been for a short blast on my CBR (Honda, not Halfords).

What was the pain like after the wrist op?? Was it a while before u could use your fingers?? As well as crashing bikes, I'm a music teacher, I teach trumpet which I need my fingers for. Work are gonna love me!!

Cpt Spudgun

swampi101 wrote:

yeah ive found the NHS tends to cut corners when it comes to surgery. that sucks about your elbow man, hopefully they wont have to do that.

just wondering, how long have you guys had to wait for an operation on broken bones on the NHS? I once had to wait 8 hours with a dislocated wrist and snapped arm, barely any painkillers and no food/drink.

I couldn't tell you, as I had my original op done in Germany, how ever to get an appointment at the fracture clinic was a joke.
Arrived back on sat, docs monday he wrote me a letter which I had to take to a&e, 4 hours wait and triage. Finally got to see a dr, didn't do anything, apaprt form make me an appointment. The system sucks. Finally saw specialist last weds, possible op for my plate thursday but Icould be bumped down the list, depending on emergencies, which is fair enough!!

German system is better!!
Crash, xray, 2ops. All with in 2 hours!! Boom!!

P-Jay

Cpt Spudgun wrote:

TBH they haven't said anything about a problem with my wrist, but now it's had a couple of weeks to bed in (4 to be exact) I don't think it's going to be a problem, I can hold the bars and brake easy enough on the left, I've even been for a short blast on my CBR (Honda, not Halfords).

What was the pain like after the wrist op?? Was it a while before u could use your fingers?? As well as crashing bikes, I'm a music teacher, I teach trumpet which I need my fingers for. Work are gonna love me!!

When I first came around I was in agony, but my Elbow was still hurting a lot from that op and you can't take painkillers under a general, they shot me full of Morphine and it's was pretty nice, ha ha then Tramadol for a couple of weeks, now I'm just on Codine and Paracetamol. But the elbow is far more painfull than the wrist so it's kinda lost on me.

4 fingers were working 100% straight away, my thumb was working fine but totally numb, as was the part of the palm that’s the base of the thumb if you know what I mean. Doctor said this isn't unusual after plating its ether 1) caused by the cast, if like me after years of griping bars for dear life you get quite big hands 2) a nerve is being pushed on by the plate. If it's 1 is comes back a week or so after the cast comes off, if 2 it can take a few months, even a year. My thumbs 90% back, the palm is still numb but it's getting better by the day.

3 weeks after surgery and my arm is still tender but I can use it. I've also got a restraint on it that works like a cast but you can remove, I tend to leave this off for a couple of hours a day to breathe.

I'm sure you'll be fine, I can still touch type like I could before the crash, I just occasionally hit a key with the cast thing so I'm sure you'll be playing like the little fella from the Lurpak ad in no time.

Cpt Spudgun

Hey all,
Thought I'd just give a small update. Went in last Thursday. Doc gave me the lowdown of available fixes in surgery, such as bone graft, multi plates and even sometime which sounded hideous, having scaffolding erected around my wrist to keep the bones fixed externally - this being worse case scenario. He would say which it was until he cut me open.
Anyway after 4 hours he managed to put the one plate in, and bone graft the short fall in my wrist.
Anaesthetic was hardcrore, as not only had general, they blocked my wrist from my elbow which stayed numb in part till Monday!!!
Came home the day after having been made to sleep with my whole arm pointing to the sky. Pain was masked by the block and once it has worn off I've been left pretty pain free.
And I had no morphine coming out of surgery, which I was bitterly disappointed about!!

Going to see doc tomorrow, he is planning on taking cast off and putting a removable brace on, we'll see!!!