Very Unsettled!
Yesterday I was panicky, it went up and down and up all afternoon and evening.
So I decided not to sit up and watch Il Giro d'Italia (The Tour of Italy). (For those who came in late, I'm a cycling fan, not a sports nut). I figured that my state of mind was such that the first rear puncture would have me clinging to the ceiling unable to come down for days.
This leaves me with the image of the lovely J, my homecarer, trying to get me down with a broom when she's here next Thursday, but I digress...
It turns out that not watching the cycling last night was a really good move. I just caught up with it, and there was a really nasty crash. Now, cycling is not a blood sport, bad things don't often happen. People fall, collarbones get broken, but that's generally it. But in this nasty crash, one guy (Vicioso) didn't get back up and was obviously Not Okay.
I just read that his femur is fractured in three places.
And my shoulders went up to my ears. They're still there. It seems I'm still not beyond being outrageously triggered and unsettled when it happens to someone else.
~~~~
(For those who came in late, I fractured my right femur two and half years ago. It was the side effect of a medication I was taking for the side effect of another medication, but it was a thorough break and looked like a road accident. They then also had to operate on the good leg, because it turns out there was a stress fracture there, so although that repair was easy by comparison, technically I've had both legs broken. How's that for drama?).
The surgery is great - I could weight bear on my "good" leg within days, but I still walk with a limp and there are sometimes pain issues.
This guy will be walking within a couple of months, but his career is over and it isn't easy for retired pro-cyclists to find other work. They've usually given this job their all, they haven't usually got much education or other experience behind them, and apart from a few high-flyers, they don't actually make a lot of money. If he's from a relatively poor background (quite possible: cycling is to the European working class what boxing used to be like here - a way for a poor boy to make good) he might not have much to fall back on. And even if he's not, he's going to have to be pretty flexible about finding a new life.
This entry was originally posted at http://splodgenoodles.dreamwidth.org/2278708.html. You may comment here, or there using OpenID if you have no Dreamwidth account.
So I decided not to sit up and watch Il Giro d'Italia (The Tour of Italy). (For those who came in late, I'm a cycling fan, not a sports nut). I figured that my state of mind was such that the first rear puncture would have me clinging to the ceiling unable to come down for days.
This leaves me with the image of the lovely J, my homecarer, trying to get me down with a broom when she's here next Thursday, but I digress...
It turns out that not watching the cycling last night was a really good move. I just caught up with it, and there was a really nasty crash. Now, cycling is not a blood sport, bad things don't often happen. People fall, collarbones get broken, but that's generally it. But in this nasty crash, one guy (Vicioso) didn't get back up and was obviously Not Okay.
I just read that his femur is fractured in three places.
And my shoulders went up to my ears. They're still there. It seems I'm still not beyond being outrageously triggered and unsettled when it happens to someone else.
~~~~
(For those who came in late, I fractured my right femur two and half years ago. It was the side effect of a medication I was taking for the side effect of another medication, but it was a thorough break and looked like a road accident. They then also had to operate on the good leg, because it turns out there was a stress fracture there, so although that repair was easy by comparison, technically I've had both legs broken. How's that for drama?).
The surgery is great - I could weight bear on my "good" leg within days, but I still walk with a limp and there are sometimes pain issues.
This guy will be walking within a couple of months, but his career is over and it isn't easy for retired pro-cyclists to find other work. They've usually given this job their all, they haven't usually got much education or other experience behind them, and apart from a few high-flyers, they don't actually make a lot of money. If he's from a relatively poor background (quite possible: cycling is to the European working class what boxing used to be like here - a way for a poor boy to make good) he might not have much to fall back on. And even if he's not, he's going to have to be pretty flexible about finding a new life.
This entry was originally posted at http://splodgenoodles.dreamwidth.org/2278708.html. You may comment here, or there using OpenID if you have no Dreamwidth account.