A Unicycle Story

When I was 15 (about 3 years ago) my mum brought home a unicycle for me which she had acquired from a college who no longer wanted it. I had been saying to her I would like to learn to ride one before hand so it seemed quite lucky that someone she new then was selling one cheaply. I was ecstatic when she gave it to me and as soon as I could I was out at the park and in the garden trying to get good on it. 

After a week or so learning I could just about ride with out holding not o anything (I was really proud). Then, just as I thought i was getting it I fell off backwards with my left arm stretched out behind me taking my weight as I hit the ground. I remember the pain was horrible and straight away my dad, who was in the garden with me, knew I had broken it. I had broken my arm twice previously so he knew what it looked like, the last two times were a bit different in that I went completely silent where as this time I couldn't stop screaming/crying. I remember getting funny looks from people in A&E, as if I shouldn't be making so much noise, and thinking "I can't help that you all came here for a cold nose and some of us have actually been injured". When the nurses saw me they gave me some tablets which made me laugh, it was weird because my arm still hurt but in a kind of funny bone way. I was x-rayed and given a bed, eventually the doctors came to tell me what was what, I was expecting them to just put a cast on it and let me leave like they had the last two times so was surprised when they told me I would be having an operation during which they would put a metal "wire" in my arm to fix the bone back in place and I would have to stay over night so they could do the operation in the morning.  Later I discovered, when I had my cast changed that the "wire" they put in my arm was more like a lamppost/captain hook's hook. The worst part was probably when they pulled the "wire" out of my arm as I was given no anaesthetic and my bones had apparently healed a bit too well. It felt like the nurse was trying to rip my bones out of my arm. 

So anyway, after this incident my dad chained up my unicycle so I couldn't use it and until this year I never rode again. Luckily my mum and I agreed that the unicycle I had was the wrong kind for me as it was a mountain unicycle (yes- people actually do that). We decided that what I needed was a smaller unicycle to learn on which my parents kindly bought me for christmas 2013. 

I have recently been spending as much as I can on my beautiful new unicycle and have now named him Ulysses after the greek and roman stories. It has taken a lot more than I expected to gain confidence again after my fall and probably am not quite there yet but it's going well and I'm sure over the summer I will become nearly an expert… maybe. At least this time i'm wearing full protective gear, wrist guards, elbow and knee pads and a wonderful toucan helmet.