So I had my first motorcycle accident

Leaving from work I travel north up Queen st in Melbourne. It was wet, sprinkling and sleeting a bit and so I did have all the good gear on. The other cars on the road quickly showed that the full moon was out and that I needed to pay all the attention I could.

Queen St like most in the city does get busy, I also have buses pulling in and out, and a lot of centre road parking. This means cars can pull out quickly with low visibility and also turn into them taking a wide run but it also means that
there is no trams to worry about. Trams in Melbourne mean that drivers turning right at large intersection need to do a hook turn from the left, basically pulling over out of every-bodies way until the lights go yellow and beginning the turn ensuring the road and late traffic has stopped. This is confusing to non Melbourne drivers so be sure to do some reading before coming here.

So having negotiated all of this, things were clearing as I came toward Lonsdale St. A car pulled out of the centre isle parking about 6 car lengths in front of me, and then went full over to the left side and appeared to me about to turn left. As I got closer to both him and the intersection, he seemed to be changing his mind, perhaps no longer turning but coming back into the lane I was in, but then at the last moment, I was now just going over the lines of the intersection, his car was perhaps about 4 car length ahead and the light changed to yellow.

It all goes into slow motion for me now as he decided that he was doing a hook turn, to the right directly in front of me. Not checking for any further traffic and not seeing me, I just suddenly had a car in front of me ready to t-bone.

I was all brakes and various swear words as I knew what was coming. I may have been doing 40-45 at the start, and perhaps 15-25kms when we collided. I kept the bike upright, no significant skidding but under the circumstances there was not going to be any spectacular near misses either.

My front wheel headed for the drivers door hitting it hard, the rear end of the bike then pushed left and parallel to the car from the impact. Between the two was my left leg among other things. At the last moment the bike bounced from the car, and out from under me ricocheting in front of me, during this the last of the energy pushed my upper body into the cars back right passenger door, and finally my head gave the window a bit of a smack and I remember clearly it smashing and having a moment to look inside the car.

I quickly bounced off and was sitting on the road next to the car, seeing my bike a few feet away from my feet with a lot of front end damage.

I actually felt quite fine, wasn’t shaky or traumatized and a number of people including the driver appeared to check me out… “are you ok?” etc and then somebody asked if I wanted to get off the road, I had felt my left lower leg was bad at this stage, that I was quite well protected by the car and people and said that I won’t be moving until the ambulance got there. I removed my helmet and gloves and everything still seemed attached, I opened my jacket to get my phone from inside the breast pocket, this too was fine and I called me wife and left a voicemail to let her know what happened and that I was ok.

Shortly after this I heard the ambulance sirens arriving and got a call back from my wife. The ambulance guys were great, and got me to stand on my good leg, but it was obvious my bad one could hold no weight so I got trollied in. My wife was calm so we suggested she could go home and feed herself and the cat before coming to the hospital.

If your wondering why the ambulance seems to be taking forever and blocking the road, why doesn’t it just go and stop the rubber-necking? Well in my case where it’s not urgent there a few things that are done first. Some simple medications to get my shock under control, a lot of questions about what else hurts, did I hit my head, what do I remember, what day is it? The police are also getting statements and evidence to ensure they understand the cause, checking for drinking and ask a batch of their own questions about if I hit my head, where I lived, what I remember and what day it is. Then a quick trip to a big city hospital where I got into emergency (no waiting) and asked a bunch of questions…

Gladly this was a short story each time (basically no health problems or many allergies) so then soon off to x-ray which quickly confirmed I needed a cat-scan. My wife saw this with the doctor which showed the result of the situation. My upper and lower leg had been compressed together causing a tibial plateau fracture. It had also appeared to have shattered away a piece about the size of a large marble.

So I was told that without surgery it would heal but the bad alignment of the joint would cause a knee reconstruction in a few years. Surgery would re-extend the crushed part, align the join as best as possible and with a plate, pins and grafts it would mend better, but it is still expected that some arthritis and a knee replacement would be likely later on, 20 plus years. The grafts are often a synthetic material used as a scaffold to cover gaps in the broken areas allowing for the original bone to grow over it and mend the area.

With all this now, I am in fairly little pain. I expected a broken bone to hurt more, but without any real radial damage that’s not the case. I am on little more than Panadene and thus a low priority case. I got some sandwiches for dinner (and swindled a couple more) and transferred to the onchology ward and begun fasting expecting surgery to happen on Thursday. At 1am they woke me deciding they needed another cat-scan and for all the other reasons a hospital never let’s you sleep long and well.

Thursday was a long day, no food, no water and of course no ciggies. I had visits from the surgeons to discuss plans and risks but it was lovely to have my wife with me again eventually at about 10pm it was realized that the surgery wasn’t happening so I got a left-over reheated meal, and it was good.

Friday was much the same, no surgery but at least that day I got lunch and dinner, and nice visits from family and friends. In the afternoon I got transferred to level seven orthopedics which has others in a similar situation to me. The guy in my room got thrown from a horse and air-lifted in, very broken right arm and right leg smashed in 8 places. His first round of surgery went for eight hours and is now recovering for a few days before going back for more. This helps me understand why I was still waiting all this time with others like this coming in.

Saturday the surgery was quite assured, there is a special priority round of cases they concentrate on and I was booked in for about 10.30. Fasting again wasn’t bad this time, the morning went quick and soon enough I was heading down to the theaters. I was wheeled in and seen by the anesthesiologist and then again by one of the surgeons. He raised the issue of the size of the hole seen in the knee area. To fix this a part of the hip bone is often taken and used where a synthetic graft is not ideal.

Another guy with a broken jaw was also there (and in more pain than me) and shortly got wheeled off, but not two minutes later came back as I heard helicopters landing above. We had been bumped again but fortunately this time not too long and within and hour or so we were going in for our turn.

A bit of shuffling to get me on the bed, arms placed out for access and soon enough I was getting put under, ‘you will feel some hot rushes coming up your arm and then a bit dizzy’ and that was it. Almost two hours later and I was outside waking up. My leg and knee were very sore, although I had been given morphine in the op, they purposely limit how much and as you wake up you start to push the button and the pain gets monitored, shortly it was returning from an 8/10 to a 4 or 5. I soon checked to see about the grafting, my hip didn’t hurt and i found out that no grafting was required. Most of the pieces were found inside the compressed knee and when put back into place the doctor was happy enough not to have to use any, but still of course it’s all bolted together with a plate and two pins.

Later that night I had to get up a few times to get things moving, this has been quite good and got me mobile quickly, albeit on one leg and a frame for now. Tomorrow I hope to get my crutches and if the rest is good out by Tuesday or Wednesday.

So finally thanks to Facebook and Twitter for getting the word out to so many friends and colleagues so quickly, and to the ambulance guys that were great about me being on the phone/internets while they were doing their thing. To 4-Square for giving me bonus points in the ambulance and hospital, my first checkin there ever and perhaps anywhere special for a while.

And a big hug and thanks my love to my wife for her support and help over this time.