Thursday 21 February 2013

Oops!

For once fine weather coincided with a weekend. Rather than head in to the Dales and do lots of hills I decided to head out towards Wetherby for a "flatter" ride. First there was the little matter of getting the car headlights fixed - both had blown within a matter of days. Guess which lights on the car aren't user replaceable? Fortunately the garage didn't charge for fitting.

So, on to the bike ride and everything went well for the most part. I didn't get quite as far as Wetherby, turning round after around 26 miles as I haven't really done a lot of riding recently. Having gone out via the back roads I returned using the main road up Wharfedale. Even though I was on my own I was making good time averaging around 17-18mph. Everything went well until Ilkley where I bonked having not eaten enough and the last ten miles over Cringles and up to home weren't a pretty sight. Oops!

Sunday was even better weather wise but the ride was a bit of a comedy of errors. Firstly I needed some oil on my chain so as we were going close to his house in Embsay, I nipped in to Andy's for some lube. I'd misheard which route we were taking so headed off up the climb to Halton Heights trying to catch the others who had actually gone via Bolton Abbey. Still I got a PB on the climb:-) It was only after finding out at Kilnsey that they were behind me (waiting for a slow rider!) that we met up again.

The plan had been to head up to Halton Gill but time pressures on various members of the party had led to a change of plan and they were now intending to head from Arncliffe straight over to Malham. Unfortunately there's a very steep hill in the way, one which I'd never actually managed to ride up before, with a still delicate ankle it and also recovering from Saturday's debacle it wasn't something I was exactly keen on. So it proved as I ground my way up the incline at the back of the group. Amazingly I actually managed to ride it in one go with no getting off :-) There's a long drag after the main climb to get to Malham Tarn and with a strengthening breeze it was getting harder and harder work, I'd no energy in my legs at all. Even the slight inclines on the way back to Skipton felt hard work.

Monday, I rode to and from work for the first time in nearly two months and my ankle felt quite a bit worse than previously but the discomfort eased over the day. Tuesday morning and the ankle was again swollen and painful so I arranged an appointment with my GP who put me in for an x-ray at Airedale hospital. Thus on Wednesday lunchtime, x-rays duly done, I'm waiting in the Radiology department for the preliminary results when I'm told to head to A&E because they've seen a fracture. It's then a wait for triage (daytime TV is truly appalling!) who send me on to the minors facility (I think it's minor injuries rather than minors as in young people).

Once my name is called, the doctor wants to send me for an x-ray until I tell her it's the Radiology dept who've sent me to A&E. When she pulls up my x-rays it's plainly obvious that I've a break in my lower fibula. Bugger! If I'd headed to A&E when I'd done it then apparently I'd have been in plaster for around 6 weeks. The fracture is very similar to look at to this one: http://nateklein.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/november-22-2009-thanksgiving-week.html A bit of plaster work later and I'm on my way home with an appointment for the fracture clinic tomorrow (Friday). We'll just have to see what the prognosis is. Oops!

4 comments:

  1. So how long have you been like that???

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  2. I always thought you were a hard bugger Bob but riding a bike for weeks with a broken leg proved it!

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  3. Cath thinks I'm daft, I got a few disapproving looks :-) Marvin: I went over on the ankle just over four weeks ago - http://bobwightman.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-quiet-january.html

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  4. Sorry to hear that, hope you're soon fixed.

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