h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

A thought that seemed quite apposite last month as I bounced along the A19 in front of the Mitsubishi 4x4 that had just totalled the back half of my mountain bike, sending me on a ballistic trajectory in the meantime.

I had intended to continue straight on to the overpass; evidently someone wanting the slip road found the task of driving around, rather than through me beyond his capacity.

I saw the headlight beams to either side and hardly had time to think "Oh dear..." before I was looking at the sky and hearing hideous crunching noises...

Once I had come to rest, my first thought was that my back was history. It turned out OK, but the initial whiplash was very painful. The next concern was the road rash that had melted my lycra (later I had three doctors pronouncing it "Bad," "Very bad," "Oh, yes, very bad," in quick succession) and, as I discovered after probing the road rash, the slightly awry alignment of my right hand. That seemed to pop back into place easily enough, but turned out to be the most serious injury.

In that respect I was probably quite fortunate.

Also that one of the 4x4's occupants called the ambulance.

I'll recount my hospital adventures later, suffice to say I now have a screw holding my radial styloid together and my right hand in a cast.

How are you now- fully recovered?

Pretty much: the cast is off, and physiotherapy has restored the mobility to about as much as it's going to be for a while: I start occupational therapy to get my strength of grip back tomorrow.

The consulant was very happy with my recovery: as I suspected at the time, the titanium screw is going to stay where it is.

I've even been sculling a couple of times, but since I'm horrendously unfit after three months' inactivity I didn't go very far.