Saturday 6 March 2010

Thanks For All The Messages Of Support

So as you may already have heard, on Tuesday evening I became a statistic, one of six cyclists who is seriously injured every day on Britain's streets. Rather than making it home after the east London Climate Camp meeting and my first introduction to their somewhat confusing process of consensual decision-making, I've instead spent this week in the Royal London Hospital, where I has an operation to repair the shattered bones of my shoulder and has a fair amount of morphine.

The trauma ward may have been as stifling as a sauna (not helped by my bad reaction to the painkillers, which sent my temperature sky-rocketing). There was a severe shortage of staff on Thursday evening and the food was astonishingly terrible, but the A&E staff were great and one staff nurse, who went out of her way to track down my missing valuables (including my flat keys), was yet another reminder why I'd always want to be treated by the NHS. Many thanks too to the many, many people who rang, sent me a text, tweeted, dropped by and visited and even blogged (thanks Louise). I promise you, it really helped - especially as I'd been desperately trying to avoid reliving the moment when I realised the car hurtling towards me wasn't going to stop, or the moment I hit the Whitechapel Road and thought, "shit, I'm not wearing a helmet".

At the moment, I feel like I've had my life placed on hold, unable to even make the simplest of plans, and I really wish I could just rewind to Tuesday evening, sit through the meeting at London Action Resource Centre all over again and this time accept the offer of a quick visit to the pub. I know it will take me around six weeks before I have significantly recovered and typing with one hand is slow-going. I also feel like I'm carrying around a five kilo deadweight of upper-arm elephantitas, which is inredibly tiring. Daily blogging seems unlikely - but it's about all I can manage for the time being, so bear with me.

5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Take it easy comrade!!

Michael Calderbank said...

hope your recovery is full and as quick as possible!

Dave Semple said...

Get well soon mate.

Alan said...

Only found out what happened - first time meeting you that night. Hope you get better soon.

Anonymous said...

I am injury lawyer. Can I sign you up? (just kidding)

NHS helping you with keys, well that is really down to that 'individual'. I have come across crap NHS staff just as well as good ones. It all comes down to the individual.

As both a cyclist and a driver. I deplore the driving standards, people in London drive like maniacs. This is mainly down to police not stopping drivers for bad conduct.

I am sh*t scared of cycling on London roads. I have cycles on pavements which are largely empty, but I know I am breaking the law....

I think there should a be change in policy, where there should be shared use, especially, if pavements are empty (but with speed restrictions). So fast cyclist go on the roads and slow ones on the pavements.

Cycle theft is another concern. Would like to see more secure places to lock up cycles especially outside shops, there are cctv on yellow lines, to catch motorists and make money fast, but none to protect cycles....

As for cycle helmets, I bought one, only to find out it has a life of 3 years and it must be replaced!

Get well soon....

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