scoobydoo
26-05-04, 09:15
Hi all,
I just thought I'd put a post up about my problem to see if anyone else has been in a similar situation and if it got any better for them!
On June 15 last year I was riding my motorbike, out for the day with my husband and a group of friends. We came up behind 3 very slow cars and when we came to a straight bit of road I came out to overtake (I was at the front of our group). Unfortunately when I was level with one of the cars they also came out to overtake without checking their mirrors and knocked me off. It was an horrific accident - my husband who was directly behind me thought I had been killed. Luckily although I had some bad injuries (smashed knuckles, both wrists, broken shoulder, numerous lacerations) I was relatively ok, not even knocked out. A week in hospital, 2 operations and 3 months off work ensued, but I fought very hard to get back to where I had been before and in fact I completed the London Marathon last month and finished in a time of 3:34 which put me in the top 6% of women!:)
Just after returning to work I bought another motorbike and started riding again. Apart from a severe amount of pain I was fine, even overtaking with no problems. I was driving my car as well with no trouble. Then, about October, things started to go wrong. I would be riding along and all of a sudden I'd get a flashback to the accident and feel myself going over the handlebars again and hitting the road. It was dreadful. By December I was feeling really depressed, although once we turned into the new year I felt a bit better. At this point driving the car was ok, but it was too cold to ride the bike. In Feb I got back on my bike after not riding it since October. To say it was dreadful is putting it mildly - I was terrified. Things then went from bad to worse and now I can drive the car in town but as soon as I get out on the motorway I start sweating, imagining all sorts of horrific accidents, feel like I'm losing control and basically just having a terrible time. I can barely ride my bike round the block and even then I think I'm going to pass out and fall off. I got a referral from my consultant to see a psychiatrist about post traumatic stress disorder, and it is helping a bit but basically part of my social life is on hold at the moment as biking is such a big part of my life, and it's terrible not to be able to go out and about on the weekends or make plans for holidays.
I know this is nothing like as bad as the problems some people have on here, but I just wondered if anyone else has got through something similar.
(please don't say give up biking as I would be devastated to have to do that).
thanks a lot
scoobydoo.
I just thought I'd put a post up about my problem to see if anyone else has been in a similar situation and if it got any better for them!
On June 15 last year I was riding my motorbike, out for the day with my husband and a group of friends. We came up behind 3 very slow cars and when we came to a straight bit of road I came out to overtake (I was at the front of our group). Unfortunately when I was level with one of the cars they also came out to overtake without checking their mirrors and knocked me off. It was an horrific accident - my husband who was directly behind me thought I had been killed. Luckily although I had some bad injuries (smashed knuckles, both wrists, broken shoulder, numerous lacerations) I was relatively ok, not even knocked out. A week in hospital, 2 operations and 3 months off work ensued, but I fought very hard to get back to where I had been before and in fact I completed the London Marathon last month and finished in a time of 3:34 which put me in the top 6% of women!:)
Just after returning to work I bought another motorbike and started riding again. Apart from a severe amount of pain I was fine, even overtaking with no problems. I was driving my car as well with no trouble. Then, about October, things started to go wrong. I would be riding along and all of a sudden I'd get a flashback to the accident and feel myself going over the handlebars again and hitting the road. It was dreadful. By December I was feeling really depressed, although once we turned into the new year I felt a bit better. At this point driving the car was ok, but it was too cold to ride the bike. In Feb I got back on my bike after not riding it since October. To say it was dreadful is putting it mildly - I was terrified. Things then went from bad to worse and now I can drive the car in town but as soon as I get out on the motorway I start sweating, imagining all sorts of horrific accidents, feel like I'm losing control and basically just having a terrible time. I can barely ride my bike round the block and even then I think I'm going to pass out and fall off. I got a referral from my consultant to see a psychiatrist about post traumatic stress disorder, and it is helping a bit but basically part of my social life is on hold at the moment as biking is such a big part of my life, and it's terrible not to be able to go out and about on the weekends or make plans for holidays.
I know this is nothing like as bad as the problems some people have on here, but I just wondered if anyone else has got through something similar.
(please don't say give up biking as I would be devastated to have to do that).
thanks a lot
scoobydoo.