It's canny cad like

Yesterday both Ern and I were down at Pace Rehabilitation's Manchester clinic at Bredbury where I was going to test out a new check socket, specifically for use on my BTK Crossover. Toby one of my prosthetists had taken a cast from my everyday socket late last year. The socket this cast was taken from was actually a design, which Paul, again one of my prosthetists from Pace had designed and my local Disability Service Centre then copied, giving me the socket I use everday for work and what not.
 

 

I know I know lots of information about a socket right? Thing is for an amputee a socket can make or break you. I am actually amazed that I have had a good fitting socket for so long, sure I have gone up and down a little in volume and had to tweak my liner a little, either moving the Ossur XTF seal up or down, but compared to some of my old NHS sockets this one has been awesome.

Man it was a long day yesterday, driving home from Manchester my right hand was proper painful, so much so I asked Ern if he didn't mind if we called into A&E at Durham. I must have done something to my hand at work I think it is from leaning over a patient on Tuesday afternoon. Anyhoo 3 hours spent at A&E along with an X-ray to be told my hand had no broken bones. The Nurse who inspected my mitt said I could possibly have tendinitis, which kind of fits I guess if I have strained it. My hand feels pretty ok on a morning, however gets stiffer and more painful as the day goes on. It felt canny good today on my ride out, but that maybe because I couldn't feel my hands they were so cold LoL.

Arriving at Pace I was chuffed to bits to be reunited with my "old" prosthetist Paul , no I don't mean he is old I mean it is sometime since I last saw Paul and worked with him. Anyhoo as ever Paul was eager to get on and hear about what I had been up to and how he could help.

And so basically like I said earlier Paul showed me the new check socket and once he had fitted my BTK Crossover, we began work setting up both the knee for alignment and the socket for comfort. First I did a few back and forths in between the parallel bars, then once Paul was happy with the rotation of the socket and alignment of the knee he added some extra fiberglass wrap to keep everything in place. Ern setup my De Rosa Road bike on the Turbo and had a sneaky go. 

Go On Ern

When Paul returned I had a bash on my road bike, on the turbo trainer. A few more tweaks, to my foot and the cleat of my shoe and things looked pretty good. Paul then made sure everything was torqued up and I was allowed to take the test socket home for 2 weeks of testing. If it feels good on the bike in the real world, like on trails etc, Paul will go on to make me my final socket.

I was awfully tempted to stop in my pit this morning, as looking out my bedroom window it just looked nippy. "Nope can't do that I thought" I have to give this new socket an outing. Now if you have read my previous blog you will know that I have managed to snap a Tendon. I immediately got in touch with both Greg over at Fabtech Systems and my mate Brian Bartlett and the designer of the knee. As per usual both parties were right there to offer support. Brian arranging to get new tendons over to Fabtech and Fabtech sorting out shipping to my address for the new parts. Brian also offered great advice in riding without the use of the integrated cams, saying remove both cams and put around 100 psi into the Rock Shox RT3. That would enable me to ride out the saddle, however I wouldn't be able to take in the harsher drops or jumps without the support of the tendons. "Ooh I will give it a go" I thought. A change in mindset as in the past I would have spat out the dummy, thought "aww it's knackered and just stayed in".

I had a little bit of a nightmare this morning as I aimed to go out. After having a small ride around the block to see if my foot would catch, which it did, Ern went to give me a hand try to reposition my shoe cleat on my prosthetic side. One of the studs in my shoe holding the cleat just wouldn't budge. This meant me routing around in the cupboard for a pair of shoes that wor Baxter hadn't decided to eat. I discovered my old Shimano boots, looks like he had had a nibble of the velcro strap, but hey they would pass. Dam it they had no cleats in, so Ern sorted some out I had spare and fixed them in place.

And off I went, taking it real careful around our back street as wow it was proper slippery. I figured the Farmers Trail may be the best way to get to my destination. I had plans to go to Hedley Hall Woods you see. Ern, Baxter and I had been over there just a few weeks ago and it looked a canny place for an adventure on the bike. My weapon of choice today was my Specialized Turbo Levo. I was very cunning in my choice, thinking if it is too brassic I could get home quicker on Turbo mode LoL.

Heading up the Farmers Trail in "Trail mode" was spot on. Just enough to work the old leg and a half and at a pace that left me a little out of breath. As I got to No Place, yes it's a real place I turned and headed down towards Beamish. As I rode down I had a complete mental block as I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get to Hedley Hall Woods. Isn't it strange when that happens. I mean I knew where the place was I just couldn't figure out which way to go. Eventually my brain kicked in and I had to turn around and head back up the bank and then cut down the back streets of No Place, before cutting across the Chester New Road and headingh along to Shield Row. From Shield Row I got on to the Causey Road, "Dear Me" it was "ffffff freezing" I had to pull in and readjust my Arctic ONE Buff, to cover my lugs, neck, nose and mouth.

Ern on trying to sort my shoe cleat

Up the Farmers trail

Down the Farmers Trail to pick up my camera

A blast along the Causey and up the hill I turned as if to go down towards Silver Hills and it's along here I was able to head in at the Car Park for Hedley Hall Woods. The Turbo Levo is a bit of a pain to lift over gates etc and the fence at Hedley Hall Woods is canny high. Manged to get her over without dropping her or doing myself an injury. From here I went about just messing about with my various cameras and having a bit of a scout about the woods. It all looked different with the snow lying, so many of the trails Ern, Baxter and I had seen I just couldn't find, so I just made up a route as I went along.
 

Man it was cold pleased I had my Arctic ONE Buff

After playing around for sometime a fellow mountain biker came along, we must have stood and chatted for a good 30 minutes, proper nice fella, forgot to ask his name. He was telling me he was 66 and been riding bikes for years. Really enjoyed the banter and when we started chatting about the electric bike he wasn't one of these people going on about cheating and get a proper bike etc.

Bloody Cad Like

Spot the duck

By this time I was getting proper cold, so decided to shoot just a little more footage, get a few pics then head home, going back along the Causey, however when I got to Shield Row I went straight up the bank, this is when I hit the Turbo mode. Straight in the house, gear off and a boiling hot shower...Ace