Road To Recovery
With David Fletcher
We're pleased to bring you the second part of David Fletchers 'Road to Recovery' - A series of blog's following this Elite XCO Mountain Bike racer's mission back to full fitness after surgery on a shoulder injury, an injury that finished his 2014 season early and put him out of the 2014 Commonwealth games.
"It's now been around 2 weeks since my operation and my recovery process begins once again. Initial reports from the operation are good and I'm thankful to be back in the right direction. Its hard having an injury that ends your season early or causes you to miss a large amount of racing just when all the vital races are beginning. Motivation goes to an all time low and horrible thoughts go through your mind that aren't the best for a cyclist wanting for glory and success.
The surgery itself wasn't too difficult for the surgeon. Fortunately for me, my surgeon is a specialist in this type of surgery and does this many times a week. A basic job of chopping a small amount off my acromion bone, then putting two bolts into the same bone, and a bone just below, with a fake ligament attached should fix the issue, keeping my shoulder in place and removing the large lump that was pointing from my shoulder.
My ability to train or do any fitness of any type has been limited due to the pain I have in my shoulder. The block they use to numb the pain in my shoulder does slightly damage my nerves and the effects leave me with quite a lot of pain from time to time. This will go but for now painkillers are my only resort to help with the pain. Having a dog at times like these helps more than usual; walking the dog 2-3 hours a day helps to keep me active and prevents me from going slightly crazy. Cycling wise I'm able to use a recumbent style indoor bike, keeping the pressure of my shoulder and shifting it to my back and gluteals, an hour or so a day keeps my legs spinning for the time being, it's not much but anything is better than nothing. I'm also doing some leg work and core work, nothing that might damage anything so as to cause me pain in my shoulder but enough to keep as fit as I can and get a head start on my rehabilitation after I get back on the bike.
For now I'm stuck to the gym or, when I'm able to, I'll be training on the turbo. Nothing exciting but something to keep my mind and sanity in check. I have an appointment with an NHS physiotherapist on the 4th of November, so fingers crossed I'm making good progress and I can get an estimate on the time scale on when I can ride on the roads again.
Be sure to check out next month to see how my recovery is going and progressing... that's if I'm still sane and not on the dark side of crazy. Also there will be some other news for next year which is worth a look out for."
Follow all the latest goings on via David's Twitter feed - @d_fletch1