What the Doctor Said...

Went off to see the consultant this afternoon. Lovely day for a car ride (the first time I have been out of the house since I got back from Dartmoor). The consultant was a nice chap with a good sense of humour and a cunning knack of causing me a lot of pain in the name of trying to find out what was wrong.

So, first the good news. I will be on crutches for another 5 weeks, with 3 weeks more advised off work (otherwise I risk a more lengthy healing period). After the 3 weeks I may be able to drive (only I will know, but I certainly want to be able to do emergency stops for all those pesky cyclists out there), but more likely after the 5 weeks. It will then be another 6 weeks before I am fully up to ramming speed. 11 weeks more in all.

Now the bad news - I had another set of X Rays and they show that I actually broke my pelvis twice, both pubic bones, with the right hand side one much worse than the left (quite a sizeable crack on the right running along the length of the bone). There was also a chip out of my hip socket, which could have been down to the accident, or down to general wear and tear. He did say that for someone my size to have broken these bones in the way I have it must have been a very sizeable impact, with a lot of energy moving through my hips. I suppose the yellowy/bluey/swollen area running down the outside of my leg is testament to that.

I go back to the consultant in 3-4 weeks time to check on progress, at which point I will ask him about cycling and timescale. Worst case will be another 11 weeks, best case 5 weeks, as a betting man I'd say it will be somewhere in between.

As for Mrs Oddlad she is, quite understandably, worried about me getting back on a bike, but she also knows that accidents are just that. Still, very difficult times for her. She really is a gem.