Dem Bones

Ah, the miracles of modern medicine!

No boring old X-Rays here on Speedtherapy!

No, no ladies and gentlemen!

Here are some CT scans, 3-D and in full color of my wrist!

This is the inside of my left wrist... as if the back of my hand were flat on the screen. The jagged line in the big circle is the main break across the end of the radius. Doesn't look too bad. In the small circle is the 'knob' of my wrist that has parted company. This looks worse.

This is my hand rotated with the knob toward you. As you can see in the big circle... the end of the radius has been displaced downwards (toward my elbow) by nearly an inch. This caused my hand to sit about an inch from where it should be in the joint. In my pics from Peterborough you'll notice my hand looks a bit... funny. The bone is also nicely smashed up. This helps explain why I couldn't pull in the clutch, push the bike or find neutral with my hand (But doesn't explain how I still managed to pick the 170kg beast of a bike up off the floor). Turns out the knob in the small circle is of no real concern as it has no function other than to give you a knob on your wrist. That makes a whole lot of sense...

A view from the opposite side. The important bit here is your joint... the break and displacement caused a very uneven joint... not smooth and rounded. If it had healed in this way, I would have lost a lot of mobility, it would have caused extreme discomfort (pain) but more importantly I would have had severe arthritis in this joint within a few years. Not a good situation.

So... they dug inside of me, straightened the bones, clamped them, then screwed a 'T' shaped plate over the joint to hold it all together. The knob that was 'hanging out' has been skewered back in place... this is more cosmetic than anything because it doesn't form part of the joint. So... yes, I have had cosmetic surgery.

I'm back at the ortho on Friday... so hope to bring you some pics of the bionics! Wrist is still painful and recovering from having the bones drilled and tapped. Some major trauma pre and during surgery there...

Thanks to the NHS for the scans, surgery and anatomy lessons.

I'm in Ipswich at the moment having some magnetic and lazer treatment by the fabled Physiotherapist who specializes in 'High-speed trauma injuries'; Brian Simpson. His waiting room is pasted with 'Thank you' pics - it's like at who's-who of bike racing: Trials, MotoX, Grasstrack, Speedway, Road Racing, 'Real' Road Racing, MotoGP, BSB, WSBK, Classics, Sidecars... you name it.

If you ride bikes (push-bikes included)... bookmark his website. You never know...