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| A different perspective. Luna Park, Sydney, Australia. |
There is a great moment in the film This Is Spinal Tap, my favourite film of all time. The band are in Memphis, gathered around Elvis Presley's grave. "Well", says Nigel Tufnel, stuck for something profound to say, "it certainly puts things into perspective." "Too much!" replies David St Hubbins, "Too much ******* perspective!" On the whole, though a little perspective is no bad thing.
I have reached a stage in my recovery where I am out of plaster and off the crutches. I can walk unaided (albeit with a limp) and have started gentle rehab exercises - cycling and light leg weights - in the gym. I feel like I should be back to normal, yet I still have some way to go. My leg is completely weak and my ankle remains both swollen and very stiff. Running, climbing and skiing seems some way off - the physio reckons I have at least two months of thrice weekly gym sessions until my left leg is up to full strength. It is a thoroughly frustrating time. Combined with a return to work and a bout of extreme Lara-related tiredness, I have started feeling a little sorry for myself.
Then today, I had lunch with some work friends, one of whom is currently in a wheelchair. After a short delay whilst we waited for the restaurant staff to set up a ramp up to the front door, he greeted me as a fellow member of the "thirteenth of April club". It was on or about that day, around the time I was surfing the stairs with Lara, that he was hit by a car whilst cycling home. He remembers nothing about the accident or even his journey home that day. But he was able to describe in detail the injuries he sustained as a result. A femur fractured in three places, a double pelvis fracture, two punctured lungs, various other internal injuries too unpleasant to recount. For several weeks whilst his wife and young baby waited to see if he would live, he remained in intensive care, for much of the time in a coma. He was kept alive by a variety of machines, even at one point undergoing dialysis after suffering kidney failure. Five months on he remains in a wheelchair, living in a rehab centre, completely unable to manage even small sets of stairs and some way off being able to return home. Eventually the bolts and pins holding his leg together will be removed and he will walk again. The doctors tell him they'll be amazed if he returns to work before the new year, but that, he told me with absolute defiance, is what he'll do.
Despite it all, he remains remarkably upbeat. As he pointed out to me, at least he's still alive. As I said, a little perspective is no bad thing.
