Rest day – Physiotherapy 1

My first physiotherapy appointment this afternoon. Almost as soon as I left the office on my bike the weather started with the heavy sleet so by the time I got to the JR2 I was soaked.

I had an assessment from Chris, the Oxford Triathlete I saw a couple of weeks ago at the Trauma Unit, and in between diversionary chats about bikes and training and  so on he worked out what I could and couldn’t do. Filling in the questionnaire before the appointment reminded me of how much my life is still affected by the injury – sleep is interrupted, I’m still taking a couple of paracetamol a day for the pain (Ibupfrofen is an anti-inflammatory and you need the inflammation in the bone break to promote healing, so that’s a no-no), and I can’t do much in the way of chores around the house. He saw me carry my (nearly empty) rucksac into the treatment room left-handed though, and reminded me I’m not supposed to be lifting much with my arm at the moment! I’ve got at least another week before the crucial 6-week healing period is over and my arm bone is strong enough to take more abuse.

He cut me a length of yellow elastic (there was also a red strip, but he thought it too strong for me at the moment – I can always double up the yellow if I need to) to do my exercises with. For that I was charged £1! I was shown three rotator cuff exercises, to be done 3×10, three times a day. I can’t manage them all the way through, or with the full range of movement at the moment, so I have a bit of a challenge ahead of me. Because of the Christmas holiday, my next appointment isn’t until 3 January! That seems ages away.

It rained again on the ride back to the office, pesky weather. Later, back home, having got wet outside enough today, I didn’t feel like doing much training. It was horrible outside and I had presents to wrap. I realised today that there are only 30 weeks to Challenge Roth so I need to pick up the training hours as soon as I’m able.

Rest day – Trauma Unit 2

Back to the Trauma Unit this afternoon for my second appointment and X-ray. Being in a bit more of a reflective mood than when I came in last week, straight after my accident, I was able to ask a few more questions and got to see my X-rays.

Basically, the consultant described my humerus as “like a broken egg balanced on a stick”. It’s OK for now but what I don’t want is for the loose “ball” at the top to be displaced in anyway before it heals to the bone below. He sympathised that it was likely to be painful for quite some time yet. I have a couple of other minor fractures in the “greater turberosity” on the outside, caused by the direct impact with the ground, although they’re not such a worry. As long as I keep my arm hanging by my side the two big bits should heal together in a straight line. I asked if I needed the sling and he said it was mainly a precautionary measure for fat people, so it’d be fine just to let my arm dangle if that was more comfortable. They see so many fat people that it’s done as a matter of course – if you’re fat, it pushes the lower bone away from the body, splinting it at a permanently crooked angle and the sling stops this happening!

Here’s what my X-ray looks like, fractures drawn in red. Last week’s and this week’s X-rays were not a lot different. The main fracture is right across the “surgical head” of the bone:

Pretty heavy traffic in Headington when I left. It was a nice evening so I walked home.

Rest day – Trauma Unit

Had a bit of an assessment of my jacket and jeans. Neither were damaged, just very grubby, as were my trainers. They got chucked in the washing machine. I rang into work sick and Jules drove me back to the JR2 for my 11am appointment. I got seen just before 12, so not too bad a wait.

The consultant thought I had two routes to recovery: (a) conservative 4 to 6 weeks in a sling (you can’t really set your humerus in plaster) or (b) a screw through the top of my shoulder into the bone to set it straight, which’d involve a general anaesthetic, etc. He said he could see I was pretty fit and asked my about what sport I did – that was good! I told him I was concerned about losing mobility in the shoulder joint for swimming. He thought that my chances were good, whichever recovery method they chose, although either had their risks. He wasn’t keen to operate and as I had time to recover in the winter off-season, the slower, conservative approach would be fine. (I am always slightly suspicious though that they don’t want the hassle/expense of arranging an operation. For my part, yet another general anaesthetic and bone operation is not a major worry if it means a better long-term outcome.)

Looks like I’m going to keep my sling for a few weeks yet, and they’ll X-ray the joint every week to check it’s setting straight. If it’s not, they’ll have me in for surgery and put that screw in anyway. I sorted out my appointment for next week and picked up my antibiotics from the pharmacy on the way out. Jules came back over to pick me up and I spent the rest of the day sloping about the house. Pretty knackered with the stress of it all.

Rest day. Cambridge 2

The electrics in our B&B seem a bit dodgy – the lights dimmed when we put the kettle on – they shouldn’t be on the same circuit! It’s a funny little place. It’s clean enough but the decor’s a bit tired and it’s run by a bunch of young Russians, as far as we can tell, so there’s no banter to be had with the landlord like you usually get in such places. The breakfast was a bit meagre, but as I never have a cooked breakfast, OK for me.

The main reason we came to Cambridge was to see the exhibits at the Scott Polar Institute, so we walked over there and had a look around. Some good exhibits and the staff were very helpful. It’s a bit smaller than I was imagining, but no less interesting for that. After a coffee we had a wander around the art at The Fitzwilliam Museum, and then bought a takeaway lunch to eat on “the backs”. It was a really great, sunny day, ideal for wandering around the lawns and cityscapes of Cambridge. In the evening we had a look at the cinemas but couldn’t find anything we especially wanted to see (Jules was going to see the new Jane Eyre back in Oxford on Wednesday), so we settled for for a cheap curry at a curry house that had the weirdest tasting curry – there was definitely something odd about it!

Rest day. Cambridge 1

Dropped the cat off at Cosycats and we drove over to Cambridge for a mini-break. Left the car at the station (they have diagonal parking, cool!) and after a sandwich from Carluccio’s did a bus-top tour of the city, like proper tourists do. Spent the rest of the day mooching about in the city before checking in at our B&B and then went out for an excellent dinner at D’Arrys, with a preprandial pint at The Champion Of The Thames, just down the street.

Rest day. Blood donation

A nice afternoon. It would’ve been good to get out on my bike in the sunshine for an hour after work, but I’d booked myself into a blood donation session. My 24th, just one more to get my silver award.

Rest day

Another day off. My hands and feet seem to be peeling off extra layers of skin built up over the last few months of distance work, weird. Right foot starting to get back to normal.

Rest day bowling

Starting to feel more normal.I could probably have managed a spin on my bike but that’s not in the plan.

Got my car MoT’d. It just needed a small amount of work replacing a bolt/rubber grommet thing on the rear anti-roll bar. Cool. Went 10-pin bowling in the evening with Jules’ mates from the Red Cross. I quite like bowling – there is beer and you get to chuck stuff about (much like darts in many ways) – although I am the first to admit I am crap at it, as I am with all sports requiring a bit of hand/eye coordination. We had a couple of beers and burger and chips along the way, a pretty good evening out. When we got home we got a text from the woman organising the evening out to say I’d won the “worst bowler” prize. Out of 17 people, not bad! What’s worse is, the last time I went bowling, with my dept. from work, I also won that prize. Oh well…

Rest day

Managed to get into work OK, only an hour late. Walked there, of course. Spent most of the day catching up on my filing and logging of papers and so on without doing any proof corrections – I figured I was too tired not to make a mistake or two. It was strange to watch riders still finishing on the PBP tracker page while I was sat at my desk, getting on with my work.

Rest day – travelling to St Quentin-en-Yvellines

Not a good night’s sleep – nerves and worrying about the upcoming challenge meant I probably only got an hour or two’s sleep before my alarm went off at 4:30am for the drive to Dover and the ferry. The journey was smooth though. It occurred to me that this is the first time I’ve ever taken a ferry/driven the autoroutes on my own. Paying tolls at the péage was quite tricky, what with the booth being on the “wrong”  side of the car. Got to the gym at Gyancourt just after 2:30pm. It was boiling hot – doing much more than just faffing about brought me out in quite a sweat.

Trying the official jersey for size:

Passed through the bike check OK and picked up my frame numbers, PBP commemorative jersey, timing chip and brevet card OK. Sauntered about for a bit and then drove over to the Formule 1 room I’d booked for the evening. Had a bit of a kip, wandered around to the nearest mini-market for some beer and snacks and then a pizza at the local pizzeria. It was heaving with US and Canadian randonneurs. I enjoyed a half-carafe of red wine and the cheesiest four-cheese pizza I’ve ever had before retiring to the white box of my bedroom. It was still baking hot though and hard to sleep. A thunderstorm at about midnight eventually broke the weather and I think I nodded off some time after 1:30am – not too clever with a long few days in the saddle coming up, but that’s what I am, a bad sleeper, so I’m quite used to it.