The ill-tempered clavicle#

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:05:44 +0000

Let's write the whole story down in one place, shall we, and save having to repost different bits of it on a million balkanised forums.

On Wednesday evening, on the way to the Londonskate, I was skating in a straight line down Clerkenwell Road , when a following driver decided to overtake me too closely and/or to pull in before he'd finished the maneouvre. His wheel clipped my right foot wheels while I was standing on them: the situation very swiftly became such that I was no longer standing on them or on anything, instead lying in the road having contacted shoulder, head and knee.

Damage to head was just a graze and a headache (but oh boy, those things leak blood worse than British motorcycles used to leak oil), damage to knee is mostly road rash and some swelling, damage to shoulder is an anterior dislocation of the clavicle, which means I have a lump on my chest (more or less under the throat) where the end of my collar bone is lying on top of the sternum instead of joining it. Plus much bruising and tender spots and some amount of whiplash.

Some passers-by stopped to offer phone numbers and varying amounts of help (including one kind gentleman who walked with me to the nearest hospital and waited while they put a dressing on my head - in the unlikely event you see this, thanks again). I also exchanged numbers with the driver, who if I recall said something like "you went straight into me" - which is definitely a different interpretation of events than mine and only reconcilable if by "you" he actually meant "your foot". Wich frankly, he shouldn't have been close enough to touch. I can only really commend to him the advice of the Highway Code's Rule 163

Five hours in A&E, during which time I had an x-ray, a question about whether my tetanus was up to date (pretty sure I had one in Switzerland not so long ago), no further treatment for the head wound (they were going to glue it, but it stopped bleeding on its own) and a collar & cuff for my arm to stop the clavicle moving - apparently the standard treatment is to let it knit in its new position, which I suppose is fair enough if I retain full ROM in my shoulder. The collar, however, causes more pain than it alleviates - either my arm rubs against my chest on the sore bits or hangs from the back of my neck on the strained bits.

When I got home I cut my cycle top off because it hurt too much to get it over my head. Fortunately it was only a cheap Decathlon one.

Bit tetchy am I?