what I have learned today.

[andrewc]

Can you go to a walk in centre & see what they can do for you ?

[Kim]

Sure.  A nice long wait in vinyl seats is exactly what I need.   

(I could probably get an appointment with a nurse at the GP across the road if necessary)

Barakta has returned from the pharmacy with an assortment of dressings and micropore, and I've had a proper steady-handed poke at the dodgier bit of my arm in search of hidden gravel.  In the absence of infection, I think it's mostly a case of containing the ooze.

[andrewc]

A slightly of the wall suggestion as I've no knowledge of such stuff, but would adult nappies on top of sterile dressings be an idea ? Hold everything in place, contain any ooze & provide some padding .

[barakta]

Adult nappies or sanitary towels have been suggested. In many ways sanitary towels with their top layer containment of bodily fluids are ideal, they're just not quite big enough.

Kim is allergic to the medical profession thoughbut... I'll drag her that way if it becomes necessary, but will otherwise stick to annoying her with suggestions of such every now and then...

[fuzzy]

How about a dressing with a hole in it for the necessary functions, backed up with another dressing slightly larger than the hole to cover it when functions aren't being performed?

Kinda like a long johns bomb hatch......

[Kim]

I don't think there's any way that such an arrangement is conducive to hygiene.  Keep it simple and replaceable is clearly the best approach.

[Andrij]

Yikes!

GWS, Kim.

[Wowbagger]

Bloody hell, Kim, that's really nasty. But, any impact at that speed could have been one hell of a lot worse. Hugs!

[Jaded]

How about a dressing with a hole in it for the necessary functions, backed up with another dressing slightly larger than the hole to cover it when functions aren't being performed?

Kinda like a long johns bomb hatch......

With molishing skills you could fashion a length of hosepipe and a bag attached to your knee into a sort of artheter.

[T42]

Sure.  A nice long wait in vinyl seats is exactly what I need.   

(I could probably get an appointment with a nurse at the GP across the road if necessary)

Barakta has returned from the pharmacy with an assortment of dressings and micropore, and I've had a proper steady-handed poke at the dodgier bit of my arm in search of hidden gravel.  In the absence of infection, I think it's mostly a case of containing the ooze.

Gravel embedded under the elbow is great fun once the skin has healed over it.  Third parties are better at finding it and medicals with tweezers & scalpels better at extraction.

After one of my spills I needed a bit of pipe insulation on the arm of my office chair for two years.

[Kim]

Bloody hell, Kim, that's really nasty. But, any impact at that speed could have been one hell of a lot worse. Hugs!

Indeed.  Colliding with a solid object rather than sliding along the road would have ended very badly.  The fall from an upwrong would likely to have resulted in some broken bones or worse.

Although it also occurs to me that I could have been going half the speed and sustained roughly the same amount of damage (although there'd probably be a bit more aluminium left on the bike).  When I came off the Streetmachine on diesel a few years ago (resulting in a similar arm injury and a patch of more manageable road rash on the left thigh/knee), I was probably doing about 15mph.

So I shouldn't really be beating myself up for going too fast.

[andytheflyer]

Barakta has returned from the pharmacy with an assortment of dressings and micropore, and I've had a proper steady-handed poke at the dodgier bit of my arm in search of hidden gravel.  In the absence of infection, I think it's mostly a case of containing the ooze.

When I presented my elbow at A&E after my off they washed out the hole and then simply dry dressed it, the logic being that they wanted it to heal from the bottom up, pushing out the rest of the road surface (plus horse muck etc. this being Shropshire) along with the ooze.  My local GP practice then changed the dressings with manuka honey gauze every few days.  Seemed to work but took a couple of weeks to dry up.  You really, really don't want a joint infection so keep an eye on it.  I ended up in hospital for 3 weeks on an antibiotic IV after shoulder joint keyhole surgery got infected - despite all the pre and post-op precautions.  Not doing that again.......

[clarion]

Ouch!

[ian]

When the road removed all the skin off my forehead (I was literally a bone head) that all grew back despite the ominous chirps of the doctors about skin grafts (I could have gone from bone head to butt head). Well, I'm not sure they take it from your butt, we didn't get that far, so impressed were the medical profession with my recuperative abilities (I credit beer and narcotics). But to be honest, there's no other part of my body that I want on my forehead. It's a rule I have.

[Morat]

That's a really bad slice of luck Kim
Heal fast and best wishes!

[Jurek]

Late to the party, Kim.
But GWS.

[ian]

Yes, heal well and remember that chicks dig scars.

[Kim]

Yes, heal well and remember that chicks dig scars.

Over 24 hours!  YACF is slacking.

[Samuel D]

Have you had time to think why this accident happened? I ask because I wonder if recumbents like yours shimmy as uprights do but perhaps at a higher speed.

[Kim]

Have you had time to think why this accident happened? I ask because I wonder if recumbents like yours shimmy as uprights do but perhaps at a higher speed.

As I said before, it happened because I hit something which caused the front tyre to rapidly lose air (I'll look at the damage more carefully when I'm a bit more flexible, but it wasn't the massive gash in the sidewall I expected).  I've not had a shimmy on the Baron at any speed so far.  It's a racing bike and low speed stability isn't its forte (understatement), but the handling at speed is much better than my other bikes^[1].

On the other hand, the SMGT (sans luggage) has a pronounced shimmy when the handlebars are unloaded at about 10mph.  That doesn't happen in normal riding, as you need one hand on the bars to maintain control, so the weight of your forearm acts as damper.


_{[1] The SMGT is built for predictable handling under heavy loads and while the wide tyres and suspension mean you can descend like a brick, it doesn't like going round corners.  Uprights at any real speed are terrifying, as the braking is crap and I feel like I'm going to land on my face.  The less said about tricycles the better.}

[Samuel D]

I see. The mark on the road weaved, though. I suppose that could have happened for a number of reasons.

[Kim]

I see. The mark on the road weaved, though. I suppose that could have happened for a number of reasons.

Ah!



Because by that point the bike was sliding on its side - rear wheel first - with me clinging on trying to keep as little skin in contact with the ground as possible and hoping to surf it out of the path of the oncoming car.  I'm not sure if the mark is composed of tyre, seat (which lost a decent chunk of steel-reinforced rubber edging that I can imagine would leave a tyre-like skidmark), rim or bottlecage.  The whateveritis I hit was on the left edge of the mid-lane rough patch^[1] (I'd started moving out a bit to be ready for the gentle left hand bend behind the camera, which often has debris at the side of the road), and I crossed that as I lost control of the steering.  I guess I was roughly in the right hand wheel track when the bike went down, and the slide took me to the wrong side of the road.  It certainly wasn't operating as a bicycle when it crossed the centre line.


_{[1] This is less-worn surface dressing, rather than loose gravel.  I wouldn't be doing 40mph near it if it was!}

[guidon]

Gws! an excellent point made with the comparison of an upwrong - had an off at similar speeds resulting in smashed collarbone (again) and fractured shoulder blade... yes, have been thinking darkside since...

[ElyDave]

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch.

GWS Kim.

My first off from a 'bent was on my introductory day at DTEK, on a Bachetta Corsa.  Diesel or slippery white line, slid along on my shoulder, hip, ankle and helmet.  Road wore through two pairs of socks over my ankle bone, through to the bone.  Nice scar now, hip and shoulder bruises were spectacular for a while.  Surprisingly my merino top came out of it unscathed.

[Kim]

In various less dramatic recumbent offs I've done hip, ankle, several minor counts of elbow and the legendary shark bite on the shin.  None were as painfully inconvenient as baboon arse.  I read an entire book this morning (for large values of morning) to delay getting out of bed.

But beyond that and the arm, there's a spectacular lack of other injuries.  In the last 24 hours I've developed some minor stiffness in my right hip and lower leg.  There's a tiny, painless unexplained bruise on my right foot that could be unrelated.  And that's it.  My hands are fine, and I don't even have my gloves to thank for it.  (I've previously observed that my instinct in falling from a 'bent is to pull my hands in to protect my fingers, rather than stick them out to break my fall, which is also good news for wrists and collarbones.)

Counting myself extremely lucky...