Motorcycles, Trauma and Hospitals.

I went and saw a friend on the Sunday.  I was happy to see him, because I haven't seen him in ages, but I was not pleased about the circumstances at all.  His alias is MC and he was involved in a hideously serious motorcycle accident about a month or so ago.

MC was driving straight through an intersection during an amber light and unfortunately for him, so was a turning car.  I guess it is going to be difficult to decide who was at fault because they were both somewhere they probably shouldn't have been during an amber light.  (Note to self, amber for all intents and purposes means STOP if at all possible!)  MC was thrown 30 metres from the collision into a wall.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could say, oh and MC got up, dusted himself off and continued on his merry way?  But of course, this was not the case... two broken legs, tib and fib of both, a broken rib and a completely destroyed left arm.  We are talking a broken humerus and radius with a pretty darn severe brachial plexus injury.  The brachial plexus injury in MC's case means that he landed funny (obviously not haha funny!) against the wall, probably with his arm behind him, so that the tendons and nerves were majorly damaged.  The result is that he has no feeling or movement from about half way down his bicep.  Nerves were taken from his leg and groin and replaced in his arm, but as us MS suffers know, nerves take a really long time to heal and his hand is not yet working.  Thus the doctors have given him a two year time frame for his arm to come good, otherwise it will be amputated...

I think about those two years and I think about all the pain, commitment and hard work that MC will need to put in to get his arm and hand working and wouldn't it be totally devastating after all of that to then to have it chopped off.  He seems fine about this scenario, but perhaps this is a little bravado for his audience.  But I am sure (and I hope) that he uses knowing that the next two years will be filled with pain, commitment and hard work as motivators so that they are not in vain.  Good luck buddy.

Eventually, he will also need to have a full knee reconstruction as well.  Life for my friend will be a little, no, a lot uncomfortable for the next few years at least.  It gets me to thinking about why such horrible things happen to people or why people, like me, get terrible diseases?  Is it because we are bad people - no, I doubt it; otherwise every stinking paedophile would die a slow, painful, torturous death before their time.  Is it because of karma... hmmm, well if it is then many of us have done something hugely wrong and again every stinking paedophile would die a slow, painful, torturous death before their time.  Is it to teach us a lesson?  Um, er then lots of us must be slow learners because those lessons involve considerable pain.  Do things happen for a reason?  Or is everything abstract, random and accidental?  Sometimes I don't know what I believe in…

Oh I failed to mention that MC during the nerve replacement op (I think, not sure how many he has had) nearly died on the table.  Oh the post traumatic stress…

MC is currently staying in a rehabilitation hospital.  The hospital was like a rabbit warren, it was incredibly unwelcoming and walking through the empty corridors on a Sunday afternoon I felt spooked.  I also assumed MC would be in a private room - too many visits to maternity wards obviously, so I was shocked to walk into a room filled to the brim by MC and three other trauma unfortunates.  I understand now that a room full of blokes in similar situations could be a good morale raising activity but I think it's more likely due to a lack of space and outdated facilities.  It was really quite depressing, but it would have been a whole lot more depressing, for MC anyway, stuck in a bed 24-7 all by yourself.

So we had a nice chat.  I didn’t cry about the magnitude of damage done to MC's body.  And I came home and banned both my children from even considering a motorbike as a form of transport. I told my husband in no uncertain terms that I don’t care how experienced a motorbike rider he thinks he is, that he is never ever ever getting another bike.  Ever!