Three Angels & A Hospital Bed posted 4/9/2008 7:43:59 PM | 1 kudo what's this?     report abuse

Bionic_Angel

I got up that morning slowly. I sat quietly on the edge of the mattress for a minute or two and decided I felt a lot better, not 100% but much better than the day before. The children were still asleep and I love it when I can get ready in absolute quiet. I don't put the TV or the radio on, just potter around to the sound of the kettle boiling and the birds singing outside. I had a couple of hours and I was thinking I'd get so much done in that morning before going to work. I washed my hair as soon as I got up, grabbed a basket full of dirty washing and left it in the kitchen with the idea I'd write a note for the girls to put it on while I was at work. I spotted some ketchup bottles that needed washing out to go into the recycling and as I placed them in the basket I have in the kitchen for this purpose one dropped onto the floor. Without thinking I bent to pick it up and as I stood up a seering pain shot through my lower back. Staggering into the hallway I was thinking or I might have been saying "f***, f***". I knew what it was, a recurrence of an old injury. I'd slipped a disc almost ten years ago on the morning of my friend's daughter's christening. I'd needed a cortizone injection for the pain but I'd had no treatment. I couldn't walk across the room unaided and the thought of going through all that again flooded my brain during the seconds it took me to drop to my knees in the hallway of my flat. My cries woke the children and they both went into a panic which really didn't make me feel any better. I asked them to get me up because I remembered the Dr saying something before about keeping moving or the back siezes up. They managed to get me up and I stood for a while propped in the doorway unable to move for the agonising pain. The room went white and I asked for a glass of water because I thought I was going to pass out. My youngest daughter obliged and I must have given the glass back to her because the next thing I remember I'm trying to get up off the floor and both daughters are standing in front of me screaming.

"Why are you screaming?" I asked calmly. It took minutes for it to sink in that I'd fainted. It's at moments like this we need someone cool and calm to take over. Unfortunately there was no one, it's usually me who is calm in a crisis and it was my turn, yet again to be so. My eldest was on the floor saying she felt sick and faint, my youngest at least picked the phone up and asked if she should call the Dr. I told her to call my Mother first so I could assess how badly injured I was. My back was still pretty bad but what was more worrying was I couldn't move my left foot without another seering pain shooting through my body. I sensed this injury was worse than the back, I don't know why, it was just a gut feeling. I lay myself in the recovery position and asked for a pillow and a blanket. I was as cold as ice, I suppose it was the shock setting in, that and the fact I was still in my nightdress with wet hair.

My Mother arrived in a couple of minutes and was about as much use as a chocolate teapot. She gave the phone to my eldest daughter saying she didn't know how to use it and could she call the Dr. I listened to her side of the conversation, she was asking my Mother questions who in turn was asking me, mis-hearing both of us as she's deaf and then misquoting everyone. I lost patience and screamed to be handed the phone. I answered the final questions in minimum time and was told we should dial 999 for an ambulance. The paramedics arrived in what seemed like hours but was probably about 15 minutes. The children sat moaning about how long it was taking when all I wanted was for them to hold my hand and tell me everything was going to be OK. I asked one of them to sit with me and hold my hand, I can't remember which one did in the end but it helped a lot.

The paramedics were fantastic, they took their time, put me at my ease and most importantly drugged me up to the eyeballs with Entinox. Ladies who have had babies will be familiar with Entinox, it's a gas and air pain killer that almost makes the pain of childbirth worthwhile - forget the baby at the end of it, we all fall in love with the pain killer well before we fall in love with our darling new born. By the time they're moving me I'm feeling nicely squiffy like I'd just been injected with several large gin and tonics. The ambulance ride was a breeze and A&E was relatively quiet at 9am. I've been there before with my Mother so I know how lucky I was.

I'm sure I had a team of angels helping me that day. The female paramedic who worked so hard to put me at my ease was called Jane and the first nurse to see me in A&E was Deborah - My full name is Deborah Jayne. I took this as a sign I was going to be well looked after. NHS hospitals aren't well known for being the best places to be, Jane said to me herself "Deborah, this is not going to be the best day of your life". However, the pain killers came thick and fast, the information did too. I wasn't left waiting around for long and while I was, I was able to sleep. I was taken for x-ray and on return told I'd broken my tibia and fibia, might need surgery but they were going to put my foot in plaster, x-ray it again and leave it to the Surgery team to decide if surgery would be necessary.

The guy who took me for my x-ray flirted shamelessly with me. Considering I felt I must look like boiled shite, this was nice. I expect it's all part of the service or he has a thing for vulnerable females - all the same, I wasn't complaining. On return from x-ray a young nurse attempted to take a blood sample and made a cock up. She called me a bleeder, which is a medical term not an insult, and summoned the chap who'd taken me to x-ray to help out. It turned out he worked in Phlebotomy regularly and took 50-60 blood samples a day, in short he was the king of the bleeders. He told me I was in expert hands now and talked me through it, even though it really wasn't necessary. We concluded between us he was a natural born vampire and that I was rather at his mercy. He looked into my eyes and said "I'm going to get on my knees for you now", I laughed and asked if he was going to propose. He said he might and I wondered how many times he'd been through this scenario with other women. He couldn't have been more than 20 and was as smooth as silk. I guess working in a hospital has it's advantages, gives some a chance to study more than medicine.

So they give me a shot of morphine and put my leg in hot plaster bandages which actually felt like some kind of spa treatment - I'm thinking that was probably due to the effects of the morphine. Before long I'm winging my way to the Surgical Admissions ward, where the next chapter of my hospital stay was about to begin.


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