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Back operation and insurance/DVLA notification

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
pippaandben

pippaandben

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I am a type 2 on insulin and carb counting. I have a 3 year license and insurance people know. I know I must not drive for minimum of six weeks and only then if I can use brake to do an emergency stop. Hospital seemed to think I needed to notify both. Any advice?
 
Most major surgery say's no driving for 6 weeks I never had to tell DVLA, just didn't drive until I could do an emergency stop. Have a look on the DVLA website for conditions you have to notify them for. Obviously if you drive before advised fit to do so your licence is invalid as is your ins.
 
Exactly Sue - the same after a hysterectomy. I seemed to be doing OK so thought I'd have a little drive one sunny afternoon. So, though first visit, petrol station literally round two corners from my house. About a quarter of a mile. Fine till I stopped at the pumps and pulled the handbrake on with my usual gusto - my seat shot back on the runners - way too far back for me to reach the pedals.

To be absolutely fair, my husband had offered to clean it (inside & out) a few days earlier, and so had obviously moved the seat back, to vac. This was a Mk I Escort estate, so there were sort of 'notches' on the runners and you had to make damn sure the seat mechanism was holding the seat firmly in place again any time you moved them. They were all made like that in 1971! LOL - and that's exactly what they did, whenever you hadn't made DAMN sure LOL

So of course, I immediately plant my two feet on the floor, reach my hand under to move the lever to the side to release the mechanism and try to hotch the seat forward with the weight of me transferring to the seat squab through my bum - the normal method to this day. Oh SHEET!! (not the word I really shouted out at the time) - No Way Pedro - FAR too painful. So anyway, I got out and put some petrol in, with the spare arm across the scar, supporting my innards. Went in and paid. Came out and tried to do it from the outside - I couldn't apply sufficient pressure to the back of the seat to move it at all. Fortunately then, a car pulled up to the pump behind me so I had to ask the driver of that to do it for me! He must have thought I was a nutter since I didn't explain, must have thought 'how the hell has that woman ever got anywhere in a car, if she can't even do that!' followed quickly by 'Bloody women drivers!' no doubt.

I drove straight home and put the car keys away again, suitably chastised! Took about another 10 days before I dared try again! If I couldn't do that - I'd never be able to do an emergency stop safely was my judgement.

You just don't realise what you use certain muscles for, until you can't! It was an excellent lesson to myself at the time.
 
trophywench said:
Exactly Sue - the same after a hysterectomy. I seemed to be doing OK so thought I'd have a little drive one sunny afternoon. So, though first visit, petrol station literally round two corners from my house. About a quarter of a mile. Fine till I stopped at the pumps and pulled the handbrake on with my usual gusto - my seat shot back on the runners - way too far back for me to reach the pedals.
Click to expand...

My GP told me I could drive as soon as I could do the emergency stop and best test was to stamp on a can of coke, which I managed after a couple of weeks. First time I went out some burke backed his tractor and trailer out of a side road in thick fog with no one to stop the traffic. My emergency stop involved a 360 degree turn in the road with brakes on and a hard yank on the steering wheel. For some reason I didn't feel so good after that.
 
If your hospital has advised you to inform DVLA, and recorded this advice in your hospital notes, you could be in trouble if you don't follow their advice, in the unlikely event you had to make an insurance claim. I would clarify with "hospital" exactly what the person meant. Who exactly told you eg surgeon / anaesthetic / specialist nurse etc?
As well as the stamping on soft drink can test, you could also sit in driver's seat, with seat adjusted to your requirements, engine not turned on, and use yur right foot to push brake pedal as fast as possible - exactly what you'd do with an emergency stop.
 
I'd tried that before I turned the ignition key Copepod - but of course because you know what you are doing you don't tense up the wrong muscles etc - it's much like the driving examiner bringing his clipboard down on the dash during your test - you are already prepared for it and can visualise exactly what you're going to do when!

I've hardly ever done one in real life and only about half of those, I've also managed not to stall. Personally I don't mind very much at all if I stall when doing one - it's far more important just to bloody well stop the thing PDQ IMHO!
 
Yes, you do anticipate the stop, but it does mean you check seat is adjusted correctly. It's an extra check to the can squash.
 
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