As soon as it happened I knew I wanted it dealt with at home. The break was a bad one needing surgery, and as tough as I apparently am, I wanted to have that surgery somewhere my friends and family would be, where I could go home to my bed to recover.A call to the insurance companies emergency line had me receiving a call from the GM of Savannah Insurance assuring me they would get me sorted. They put me in contact with a local agency called SOS who could speak the language and organise everything for me, and after speaking to their Doctor to assure that I'm right to fly, I had a flight home, in Business Class, only 3 short days after the accident had happened.
This meant that I had 2 more days in Holland with the Broken bone, and I want to say a HUGE thanks to Fearny and Charlotte for playing mum and taking care of me in the Bungalow whilst the others were off racing the rest of the Tour. Without these girls I would have been in a real pickle.. I could do almost nothing for myself!
Flying business class was amazing. Having Med support at the airports was amazing. In all, had it not been so uncomfortable with the moving bones in my shoulder, I would have been in heaven! As it was, after 30 hours of travel, getting in to the limo service at Melbourne Airport was a very happy moment. I was home.
Straight to the Doctors that day to see Dr Lugg, I was then scheduled for the Op the following day. Again, all payments and everything sorted out by my insurance, I didn't have to worry about anything!No food from 7am, op around 3ish. Ok, I can do that! Turns out the Op happened at about 6, so was struggling from lack of food and water! But it was over quick enough and I was awake just after 7. I spent a long time in post op Recovery due to struggling with the pain first,and then the meds reducing my respitory rate a bit too much, so didn't get back to my ward until 10ish. The nurse got me a sandwhich and a cup of tea, and it had to have been the best sandwhich I'd ever had! Trying to sleep was difficult as the night nurse had to take my BP and Blood Pressure hourly, but at least I wasn't in pain thanks to my Morphine Button that I could use every 10 mins!
I was discharged nice and early, and Steph came to pick me up and take me home and look after me for a few hours, cooking me the best scrambled eggs ever for lunch! And then it was time for me to pass the time and hope the pain wasn't too bad by myself.
The last couple of days have been ok. The hard part has been sleeping, that's when I wake up in pain. But today is now the 4th day since the surgery, and last night went ok and so far I've been able to move the arm a lot more and I'm even using it to type this! I figure it's a bit of rehab, using the muscles and keeping them working!
Progress should be pretty quick from here, starting Physio on Wednesday, I should be on the Ergo tomorrow to start turning the legs over, and hopefully will be back outside in the fresh air within the next 2-3 weeks! For now I'm going to have to suck it up and get over my hatred of walking, just to get my daily fix of Vit D & fresh air, hopefully i'll just combine it with catching up with people I haven't seen in ages and going for Coffee's!
Whilst it's been a disappointing end to my Euro Trip, missing seeing the Rapha girls rip it up at Tour l'Ardeche(5th Team on GC!!), 4 days on the beach in San Sebastian and doing the Ras in Ireland, it's not the end of the world. They're all things that I'll just have to make sure I schedule in to next years trip!! And it is kinda nice to be home...
But my number 1 tip on travelling O/S, whether you're racing or even just planning on riding around - Make sure you have the Cycling Australia Insurance. When I got it, I whinged about how expensive it was, but they've taken care of EVERYthing and nothing's been too much trouble. Thanks CA.
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