Recovery: Down But Not Out – The Swelling Stage
How many of you have been out of action in the past and wondered how other riders or racers cope or deal with such ride-stopping issues. Our UK Editor Jim Buchanan is currently out of action himself, after receiving a nasty ankle injury at his last race of the season, testing his future ride. Some will sit back and follow every bit of advice given buy the doctors, but Jim, classes fit and strong riders as ‘faster healers’ and is not really known for sitting down and taking anything on the chin. Jim has plans to be up and riding as soon as is physically possible. Here Jim writes of the first part of his recovery in an overwhelmingly frank and honest fashion, see how the big fella coped with such an injury and what he’s doing to get back up and running.
I’m now 44 years young and in my life I’ve been through lots of things I guess many other people haven’t. I’ve experienced all polar opposites, from a privileged life to being homeless, I’ve been happy and settled, sad and nomadic, I’ve lived on both sides of the law, experienced dark times and back in the rave days got involved in all sorts of mad drug and alcohol fuelled craziness, most of which I could never repeat! Biking was where I (like many others) met all the good folk, it was my solace, my savior, my aim and my focus from my late 20s right through till the present day. But in all this time of racing and riding on various forms of two wheeled toys there is one thing I had never experienced until now; an injury which requires proper time off. The most I had suffered before in the injury department had been fractured ribs, shoulders sub-located, a wrecked back, trapped nerves, a broken toe and a broken knuckle (that was nothing to do with riding!) Never have I been out of action for longer than about three weeks since 1995 when I first started. So after a silly crash at a local race, looking down and seeing my foot pointing backwards, instantly I knew I had pushed my luck too far and I was to join the long list of worldwide broken riders.
I learnt a good lesson that day as a bike racer, don’t go out on a new incorrect sized bike with all alien components and try and go flat out on it from the start; although this cannot be a proper excuse for crashing! After a morning of riding I had hit the deck, immediately some weird knee-jerk reaction took over and saw me stupidly trying to straighten my foot back again on the ground, who knows what I was thinking! I was soon at the nearest hospital to the event, put to sleep, foot pulled back out straight and informed I could go home and check myself into my local hospital for the ankle to be pinned and plated. I had two fractures; a chipped bone and the ankle had been made unstable from the dislocation, plus there was the unknown damage to ligaments and tendons. After an uncomfortable night at home on the sofa I was at my local hospital for an eight hour wait for a bed; finally I ended up on a ward, full of what I could only describe as ‘mostly assholes’!
They offered me paracetamol as my only pain relief, I thought ‘that is like taking a dustpan and brush to an earthquake’ so I politely declined. Anyway I had sneaked in some proper pain relief and kind-of slept; apart from the fat alcoholic next to me sounding like he was dying all night! The next day they operated and sent me on my way home from there by the late afternoon. Health services differ worldwide, wether it’s private health insurance or a government run service. Mine was the latter and included the lack of any knowledge as I left of what they had done, how long till I would come back and how long I would be out of action. So I came home armed only with a set of crutches a sore ankle and the instruction to keep my leg raised.
My pain threshold is pretty good, I’ve repaired my own leg from hedge trimmer and crash injury gashes with superglue before now, to me a self-fix is always best in my opinion and far more satisfying! But this is not an option with such an injury, I have to just sit this one out, and with the shortest amount of patience of any of my friends, I knew this was going to be a tough call. Here is where my thoughts turned to my personal injury insurance I took out with my friend Helen Gaskel (UK Elite Enduro Champ) from Bespoke Financial, holy shit was I glad I had taken this out for racing, finally it became worth it, with a fractured ankle paying out £2400 (€3345) with my cover; it was time to get a claim on.
My messenger pinged on the phone, it was Ian, a chap I knew from racing, he does his own laser treatment of broken bones and was offering to call round and give me a going over with it at a mega-reduced rate as a favor. I was informed I should be consuming a massive 6000 calories per day, with lots of protein for the bones to heal, ‘Jees man, I’ll end up looking like Jabba The Hut’ I thought! I know people who have had this procedure and sing massively of its praises, so took him up on his offer; after all anything that speeds the healing process is a bonus. Next up I contacted Harris and Ross, these are the UK’s biggest private physiotherapy specialists, looking after so many top DH pros, Red Bull athletes, premiership footballers etc. They agreed to take me on as a showcase of their work. One of their guys gave me a bell soon after and we were set up to meet once the plaster was off to start their treatment.
The next week was tough for me, I was very up and down, I really don’t do ‘doing nothing’ very well. The wife told me off after coming home to find me having cleaned and worked on bikes a day after the operation. The next morning after that, once standing up, the swelling was pretty intense, I had pushed it too far! In the days after I did manage to get up and about and get some jobs done, including going to the doctors and trying to get the insurance form signed. The local doctors wanted three weeks and £50 (€70) to sign it, so were swiftly told to take a running jump! fortunately the surgeon from the hospital agreed to sign it free of charge. My emotions were up and down during this week, whilst trying to get to sleep at night I had some contemplating life choices, wishing to turn back time. I sometimes felt pretty low after having spent countless hours on social media, looking at hundreds of pics and vids of people out and about having fun on bikes, I felt like the unpopular kid who never gets invited to the party. A bit of self realisation came after I saw a few posts from Road Bike Party’s Martin Ashton (paralyzed from a bike accident) and it made me have a little word with myself, at least I will be back on two feet; what must he have gone through, the poor guy?
Eventually six days after the operation, my next appointment was booked for the hospital for another week down the line. On that same day of the message Ian paid me the visit, equipped with his laser machine, I was half hoping it was going to be like the old James Bond film, where I’d be strapped to a table trying to avoid being cut in half from the nuts up! Ian turned up with some hi-tech but compact looking equipment and got to work on me. First up he applied opposing magnet straps to my neck and ankle and I sat through 40 minutes of magnetic pulses I couldn’t feel, apparently this kind of charges the blood ready to take the laser. During this Ian told me of his impressive array of clients, including Greg Callaghan, Super Bike riders, olympic gold medalists and top profesional motocross riders. After the magnets were used then the laser was applied, first to the back of the knee onto the nearest lymph nodes, followed by the thigh, then my toes and finally the back of my spine (here it felt real hot) I was worked on for about an hour, where as Ian is a current enduro competitor and the UK’s first ever pro BMX racer we had lots to chat about!
I write this last paragraph now, 24 hours after the laser treatment, the time when the laser’s pain relief and swelling reduction is meant to kick in. The swelling has gone down incredibly, as has the pain, I’m sure it’s really done the job, but I’m not about to go for a run any time soon! There’s now six more days to go before the removal of the first cast, when I’m going to be requesting an air cast and photos of my x-rays, ready for Harris and Ross to take over. As I look down at my legs decreasing in muscle and my belly increasing in fat I can only wish time away as quick as possible, ready for the next part of my story ‘On My Feet Again’ hopefully!
Big thanks to Ian from Professional Bodies Laser Clinics, Harris and Ross for agreeing to help out and my family for putting up with my ‘miserable bastard’ moments!
Words: Jim Buchanan Photos: Trev Worsey, Doc Ward, Jim Buchanan
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