[Surffrog]

Well, it's been over two weeks since I had my accident and I’m only now able type about it without feeling too much pain. Firstly, I was wearing my full-face helmet, which 95% of people - both locals and Westerners - here in Thailand avoid wearing at all costs. But stupidly I wasn't wearing my jacket or gloves - lesson 101 in pain prevention learnt right there!

Note: Thailand drives on the left side of the road (at least officially)

I was going home after a meal with my brother and his girlfriend. I started my bike, rode out of the parking bay and headed up to the main road behind the parking area. The end of bay road is pretty badly broken up so I took it easy over this bit before turning right on to the main road.

The main road is wide but completely un-lit, so I took a little longer to satisfy myself that the way was clear. Now, as I turned to the right I could see there was a man wearing a white shirt walking up my side of the road but near enough on the centre line and, in the distance, there was a car coming on the opposite side of the road and the driver had their high-beam on. Coupled to this, there was a moped coming down my left side (because they’re too bloody lazy to cross over) and they had their high-beam on, too. I was going to be turning left in about 30 -40 metres, so I was not travelling quickly and I assumed there is more than enough room for me to go passed the man so I continued. However, as the saying goes, Assumption is the mother of all f**k ups. Everything went slow motion. My lights picked up the shape of a woman in front of me! I hadn’t seen her as she was dressed from head to foot in black!!! I hit the brakes, but it was too late for that. I tried to lean the bike over to the left as much as I could but I couldn’t stop the bike hitting her. Then everything moved rapidly. I was thrown to the ground with such force I thought that my chest and my shoulder were exploding. I was ashamed of the noises coming out of my mouth but it was the only thing I could do to ease some of the pain. Then I realized I’m dripping wet. I’ve landed in a massive puddle to the side of the road.
I heard the girl moaning and kept asking everyone around me if the girl is ok. But I couldn’t get any sense out of anyone. Someone helped me to my feet. They first tried to pick me up by my left arm but the pain was excruciating. Anyway, when I got to her, it appeared that I hadn’t hit her anywhere near as badly as I first thought. Thank god. In fact, once in the hospital the nurses and doctors were able to confirm that she only had a bruised arm and that she would be fine in a day or two.
Me on the other hand faired far worse. One broken collar-bone, three broken ribs, a torn ligament in my left inside thigh muscle and a nice tattoo of the road down the left side of my back. My bike’s not too bad, though. One broken windshield and scratched up mirrors and side panels. All repairable stuff. All I can say is that I’m so lucky. It could have been so much worse for all concerned. From now on, I don’t care how hot it is, I’m going to wear my jacket and gloves!
As is always the way here, the police took the side of the Thai over the Westerner; if you ride or drive here you have to accept this before you start. I have done and I certainly am not trying to garner any support from anyone by posting this. As far as I’m concerned, I was riding the bike and I’m responsible for it. I guess I’m just sharing my experience and hoping it helps someone.
Keep them sunny side up guys.
Ps Photos to follow

[slickwill]

Wow rough luck. Glad that you are back up again. I dated a girl that had lived in Thailand for a couple years and was fluent in Thai. She had a lot of crazy stories and crazy pictures of families of five going down the road on a moped.

[dicknose]

Im a firm believer in gloves at all times.
While it might seem silly - I think Id rather have gloves and shorts + t-shirt, than leathers and no gloves. Well certainly for slow riding.

So what did all they damage to you if you were going slow? Broken ribs is a good effort.

Hope you are better soon and back on 2 wheels.

[djice929]

Advice about the road rash - sleep on your stomach. If you sleep on the rash, it will start to bleed while you are sleeping and you will stick to the sheets, then when you roll over, it tears it open. Im speaking from experience. It will burn for weeks like a 100th dergree sunburn.

[Mogolf]

Originally Posted by djice929

Advice about the road rash - sleep on your stomach. If you sleep on the rash, it will start to bleed while you are sleeping and you will stick to the sheets, then when you roll over, it tears it open. Im speaking from experience. It will burn for weeks like a 100th dergree sunburn.

I can attest to that! It's a fact!

[Surffrog]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the advice. I know you're right about the road rash, I found that one out for myself. I think I'm healing quite fast though, most of the rash is gone except for the stuff on my hip bone. Odd thing about the hands, I only got very minor cuts on my left hand and they're nearly invisible now. Guess I'm just lucky.
I was travelling slow. About three days before, I started remembering all the warnings people were giving me when I first said I was going to get a bike. There was no reason for it, they would just come at me like a flash back in some B rate movie. Also, that evening a mate had told me that he had just come off his scooter, albeit at very slow speeds and no real damage except a sore rib. So I certainly wasn't in the mood for replicating any of Rossi's or Stoner's moves.
I'm not sure, but having revisited the site it seems that the road has a sharp dip in it about were I hit her. I'm wondering if this forced the bike over with more momentum than would have been the case otherwise. I'm just not sure and I suppose i'll never really know for sure.
I'm kind of suffering annoying pins and needles in my lower left fore arm and all of my left hand at the moment and have lost a lot of gripping force too. Has anyone else had something like that, because I'm finding that more worrying than the broken collar bone?

[slickwill]

The pins and needles and loss of gripping strength is usually pretty indicative of nerve damage. The loss of grip strength is usually a dead giveaway. It can be permanent or temporary depending on what happened. It can be from something just being impinged or can be from something being severed. I'll check the exact levels of the hand and forearm innervation.

[Surffrog]

Hey Slickwill, that's for that. A quick update on the pins and needles. I've spent the last couple of days in hospital as an out patient (which counts out assistance from my insurance). I've have the nerves checked out and there's no break in electrical firing (1st bit of good news!)
It seems that my 29 years as a diabetic is taking it's toll a bit, though. Nerve-firing velocity seems to be on the slow side. However, both arms are firing at the same speed so, according to the docs over here, they believe the collar bone maybe compressing the nerves a little. This would not be enough to affect the normal person very much, but will be enough for me to be suffering like this. A long course of physio-therpy, nerve netrients and vit B1, 6 and 12 is now part of my daily schedule.
Having said that, a trained friend was massaging the back of my shoulder line, directly parallel to the collar bone today and I immediately felt the same intense tireness in the muscles of the arm, strong pins and needles and a massive loss of power in the hand. Of course, I got her to stop straight away but the great thing is that I can now direct the Phyiso to the area in question. The Physio was able to find another spot on my neck, which sometimes twinges the collar and shoulder (painfully, I might add) but hadn't found were the nerve issue was after two days!!
I'll keep you guys updated and as soon as I can get my working hand on my brother's camera I'll post the pics. I found looking at others injuries kept my feet on the ground (my accident might have worse otherwise) so maybe mine will help others to do the same.
Good wishes to you all,
Ad

[slickwill]

Later the night that I replied to you I had the same thought about the broken collar bone causing some compression. However just getting tossed around like that in general could cause a somatic disorder (something moving out of place) to the point that it is causing compression. If your friend found an area that was making it much worse then I would focus on that point but try to reverse the effects. So if pushing in at that area makes it worse, you in essence need to try to "pop it back out." I have taken a lot of extra classes dealing with stuff like that so if you can let me know what part of the body she was pressing on to make it worse I can get you specific exercises or treatments that are designed to reduce restriction in that area.

[Surffrog]

Hi Slickwill,
thanks mate, you're a star. Forgive my lack of medical knowledge, but I would describe the area as running in parallel wth the collar bone but directly on the back of the shoulder/neck muscle arch. So, if you ran your finger tip down your neck aiming for the middle of the shoulder bone, the point would be about one inch from the beginning of the shoulder and about one inch up from the beginning of the shoulder blade. I hope that's not to confusing, I just don't know how else to explain it. The area is almost directly opposite the break.
Btw, you might find this interesting given you're in the medical profession. I was in Physio today and my brother rang me. I told him that the main doctor looking after me didn't agree with the professor who had run my nerve velocity tests. The professor thought that this loss of power in my hand and the pins and needles were due to diabetic nerve damage (when I asked why it was on the side of the accident, he said it was a coincidence). There was no one but the Physio in the room.
When I finished the call, the Physio came over and said "please don't question the Professor or say loudly he is wrong."
I explained that in England we are taught to question everything, including doctors, and that it is perfectly normal to ask for a second opinion. Her response was that she understood but please don't do it here!
Thai culture in this regard worries me. Your boss, for example, might be a complete idiot who's always wrong, but no one would ever dream of question them publicly or privately. I wonder how many people may have died in hospital because no one wanted the doc or surgeon to lose face?

[slickwill]

I'm going to look up some treatments for that area and get back to you. For now, I would disagree also. If you hadn't had a problem before the accident then I don't think that it is coincidence. I think that it is a direct effect of the accident. Especially if you feel like the spot that compounded the problem when being massaged was directly behind the break. That would be a definate clue to me.

Every medical decision here get questioned so I understand that.

[07Repsol]

Wow. Sounds like you had a rough go of it. Glad to hear all was repairable body and bike. Just wonderin why you'd want to live in a place like Thailand?

[Surffrog]

Well 07Repsol, apart from the obvious fact that there are some very beautiful women here (and no, I'm not talking about the pay for play types), the pace and cost of living, the weather (most of the time) and the fact that the country hasn't gone PC anal (and probably never will) were all extremely tempting points. I won't try and tell you that after having lived here for three years I don't get frustrated with the place, but if I listed all the things that pissed me off about England were'd be here all year!
Life's about compromise.

[Surffrog]

Thanks, Slickwill. You're a good man. It really knocked the wind out of my sails for minute when I thought I might never be able to ride my bike again.

[peoples_champ]

thats sucks, get well soon

[BMW.Nick]

Glad to hear you are ok

[Bigdaddy75]

Originally Posted by 07Repsol

Wow. Sounds like you had a rough go of it. Glad to hear all was repairable body and bike. Just wonderin why you'd want to live in a place like Thailand?

I have family in Thailand, they love the place! I think the heat would get to me over the long term but we plan to Holiday there very soon.

[Surffrog]

Ok guys, been in the hospital to have a screw inserted through the bone to stablise it. That's why no update for awhile. Funny thing, the doc (also surgeon) who agreed with my opinion found the the bone had broken into three pieces and third was tightly wedged into the nerve channel. That's what was causing the problem. They hadn't seen it before because the main two pieces were overlapping and blocking it from the x-rays view. So much for diabetic neuropathy and coincidence. They also carried out a six month blood sugar test and found that my control is really good.
It's only been three days since I got home and already the power and feeling are beginning to return. Can't quite pull the clutch all the way in yet but it's early days. I'm going to try and post my injuries pics up now.

[slickwill]

I knew the diabetic neuropathy didn't make sense and that you had an impinged nerve somewhere. Glad to hear that they found the problem and got it corrected.

[Phadreus]

Sounds like you are on the road to a good recovery thankfully. Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us Surffrog, it certainly serves as a powerful reminder of the consequences of not dawning all the right protective gear. Really glad to hear the girl you hit was not seriously injured, that sorta thing can be tough to carry around in the back of your mind. I hope your recovery goes all well and there is no long term lingering problems for you. Cheers my friend!

[Twincam]

Glad the crash wasnt worse - is the place where you came off an accident hots spot?

What was the lady doing in all black? Got any pics of the bike?

Get some rest and take care,

TC

[Surffrog]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.
Twincam, Thailand IS an accident hot spot. Just about everywhere has seen an accident of some sort involving a bike, a car or a truck.
To answer your question re the girl; I found out later, she had just picked up an Ozzie guy from the bar. He had just had a argument with his Ozzie girlfriend, who had gone back to the hotel in a huff, and he was going off with the bargirl for a 'spite you' f**k. Suffice it to say, they never consumated the financial arrangement. One Ozzie girl owes me big time!
I don't have any pics of the bike immediately post accident. However, while waiting to recover, I decided that the yellow and carbon-fibre look just weren't doing for me anymore. New pics are on the way, but you'll have to wait till I get my hands on my brother's camera again. I don't have a camera and the one in my phone is total pants.

[Surffrog]

Ok guys and girls, I tried to post pics of the new spray job yeaterday but the internet was having none of it yesterday. Lets see if we can do any better today.
http://www.fireblades.org/forums/att...d=11964095 91

http://www.fireblades.org/forums/att...d=11964107 39
You guys have no idea how long it's taken me to upload these bast**ds. Thailand really needs TRUE ADSL and soon. It's driving me nuts!!

[slickwill]

Is the Silver or the Yellow the new paint job? Either way it looks good.

[Surffrog]

The silver's the new colour. Close up the yellow and carbon were starting to get old and I was getting bored of it.