I’ve been near bed-ridden for the past 3 days because my back injury has been playing up – if you don’t know all about it, here’s a quick summary.

In 2001 I took a tabletop jump too fast on a BMX course, lost the Go-ped I was on from underneath me, and dropped 12 foot straight onto my bum – compressing my T8 vertebra to the point 78% was destroyed, and smashing my mobile phone in my back pocket so hard against my leg that I had a white mobile phone-shape-centred awful black bruise for about 2 weeks! Oddly, the hospital completely ignored my back, and dealt with my resultant breathing problems – treating me for Asthma for 3 months as my breathing got more and more laboured – I was lucky that a locum spotted my back injury, through an x-ray of my chest… and after 3 months, I finally started treatment for a broken back, which was…. nothing! This first injury didn’t really slow me down that much, but the second in 2004 was less serious but far more damaging – and means I have to walk with a stick now!

I really loved Kiteboarding, on land not sea, and spent 2 summers happily flying across the local heath powered by my 3.5m Blade Kite and my trusty mountain board. If you get going fast enough on the board, and the wind is strong enough, taking off is a fairly regular event… this one time my take off was great, but my landing more or less stank! I came down on my hip, rupturing my sacroiliac joint, damaging my leg and hip and damaged another 2 vertebrae and their relative discs.

Since then, as you might imagine I haven’t done a lot of sports – in fact I’m banned medically from trying any of the extreme ones anymore! I can’t really walk distances – even short walks often cause disproportionate pain. Some days I’m completely bed ridden, unable to do much at all – not even sit up in bed, or I’d be able to get stuff done on my laptop!

Pain days, as I lovingly refer to such events, aren’t days when lots gets done in this dojo. It’s hard to sit at my computer desk, near impossible to concentrate, and I find myself incredibly frustrated when such days take place – especially at the moment, while we’re busy setting up Ex Ignibus – I can’t afford bed days – although I do work for myself so that I can work around my disability, so I should stop being grumpy and give thanks that the business works well like that!

I’m at the desk writing this, but if I’m honest I’m in a position to wrote little more tonight.

Normal service will resume soon!

Rob