Update on injury

After I broke my nose on Sunday 10th July (see gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2011-07-10&team=16 for gruesome photo) I posted, I think on the Monday, that it seemed under control. Well things went dramatically worse the next day - I ended up being rushed to hospital by ambulance on Tuesday night as I had lost so much blood with repeated bleeds that I was near losing consciousness, and the bleed that night seemed unstoppable. I blacked out in the emergency room which was handy as I took me to the front of what the ambos warned me was about a 4 hr queue!

I ended up spending four hellish days in hospital, lost an estimated 2.5-3L blood all up, had 5 units of blood tranfused back into me, a general anaesthetic on Wednesday night and surgery to clamp off the small artery causing all the bleeding. I was allowed to come home on Friday night feeling very weak.

Probably the worst part was their repeated attempts, before the resort to surgery, to block the bleeding by ramming tampon-like wads far up my nostrils. This was excruciatingly painful. It was also pretty horrible on the repeated bleeds having blood flow down the back of my nose into my throat so fast I had to spit it up every few seconds or risk drowning in my own blood if it went into my lungs!

A month later I am still coughing up small clots of blood in the mornings and my nose is still tender and a bit swollen. I have been advised to give it 6 weeks after the surgery before sailing again - so 2 weeks to go. But I still don't feel back to normal energy levels and get a bit puffed and light headed if I run up stairs.

I was wearing a helmet when the accident happened but the impact was just below the brow of the helmet. So I will be buying a Lacrosse helmet or something similar for future speedsailing - something with a full face guard. In hindsight it was lucky the impact wasn't a bit lower as it could have knocked out a lot of my teeth.


Thanks again for all the kind and supportive comments on GPS Team Challenge! And congratulations again to team mates who pulled off some awesome speeds on that epic day, including Spotty's world record!!

Get well soon mate!
Good to hear you talking about your next session!

OMG!!

I think we should all look into better helmets

Hope you get well soon mate.

Cheers Russ

Pete, thats sounds awful!...
The Southerly Busters crew are right behind you for a speedy recovery.
Take care
Mick

Hey Pete

Hope you feel better real soon. Having had surgery for a broken nose before, I know how painful that wadding can be to insert and remove.

Take care
Pat

Here's a suggestion. My son uses one for inline hockey. I've thought of using it a couple of times.

www.hockeymonkey.com/equipment/helmets/hockey-cages-shields/brand/reebok-ccm.html

hi Pete glad to see thing's are looking up and hope to see you posting again soon.

could have been worse Pete... I could have picked you up in the ambulance[}:)][}:)][}:)]

This seems like it might be ok:

www.hockeymonkey.com/equipment/helmets/hockey-cages-shields/brand/reebok-ccm.html

Thought this might be more your style Matt, maybe yours as well Peter???



The ensemble is completed by a new type of weight jacket.

Yep, the one in black