I know this post may not be specifically relevant to quad riders only, but I think it is relevant to anyone who participates in a potentially dangerous hobby, be it quad riding, mountaineering or whatever.

In January LAST YEAR(!) I injured my lower leg when I fell of a rather large rock while hiking along the ocean. I had a wound of about 5" long down my shin (tibia, for all you quacks out there!). It was pretty sore, but it didn't seem too serious as it was only skinned, and I thought it would heal quickly enough. When it didn't heal as quickly as I thought it would, I went to a doctor, who prescribed some medicines. He said that even though the wound was so shallow, it could cause complications if it got infected because the infection could easily penetrate the bone tissue. I could see that taking the medicine did actually help the wound heal quicker, and after some time the only reminder I had of the injury was a scar down my shin, which would sometimes be quite itchy. Anyway, I thought that was the last I would see of a nasty fall.

In August of THIS year, more or less the 20th, I came down with a bad case of the flu. I stayed at home the next day and went to the doctor, who gave me something for my aching body. I fell into bed and slept most of the day and rolled around most of the night with a bad fever. The next day when I got up, I noticed a dark reddish rash on my leg, more or less along the scar and also on the outside of my leg. I didn't really know what to make of it, but I decided to wait until the weekend to see if it got better. In fact, it only became worse. It was swollen and all shades of red and purple, and when I went to the doctor again, it turned out that I had had cellulitis, which is basically an infection of tissue close to the skin. The point is, If I had not fallen and injured myself, there wouldn't have been any creepy crawlies inside my leg to attack my immune system the next time I came down with a disease.

It has now been approx. 7 weeks, and I haven't ridden my quad in all this time because I didn't want to take the risk of injuring my leg while it hasn't fully recovered yet. I wouldn't have ridden anyway for maybe the first 2 of those weeks because I don't believe one should exhaust oneself soon after having had influenza - it's bad for the heart - but the other five weeks I didn't ride because I didn't want to take risks with my leg, and because of that I missed my first opportunity at competing in a hare scramble. I know I may have been playing it too safe, but rather safe than sorry! I probably could have ridden last weekend already, but even now there is still a light pink discolouration just about my ankle on the inside. I'm going to ride this weekend, however, because it's not sore anymore, and it will only be a social ride anyway.

I'm just posting this story as a warning: If you injure yourself you may take a week or 2 (or a couple of days!) to recover, and that may be the end of it, and you can forget about it. The other side of the coin is that it may come back to haunt you when you least expect it, just when your preparations for that big race is reaching a climax, and then your out before you've even started. Remember, as the sarge used to say, let's be careful out there!

Stadler le Roux