Blue Monday

Waking at home in Nottinghamshire was a relief, even more once I'd taken some of the good painkillers they'd sent home with me. First order of the day was a bathroom stop, which I achieved quite well with J hovering nervously behind me as I hopped in.

The back-slab made my bad leg weigh a tonne, and I was really keen to avoid moving it, so I went back to bed, rather than attempting to go down stairs. Then I remembered it was J's birthday! Fortunately, I'd already got him a present, so I dispatched one of the boys to extract it from the garage, (The croquet set looked like a great present when I saw it in the charity shop in pristine condition, but I guess it will be a while before I'm on the team). The boys had had a bit of a lapse themselves, with all the excitement, but quickly organised their presents and Rowan went to look up a suitable cake recipe.

Next on the list was to phone the Dr's to arrange my continuing care. Unfortunately the receptionist seemed a bit confused and suggested I just go to A&E, "We don't do that kind of thing, sorry!" Hmm.

I decided to call the Fracture Clinic, as the hospital in Scotland had thought that would be where I got sent by my Dr. They were a bit surprised not to have the Dr. contact them on my behalf, but happy to see me anyway,
"Well, we don't want you to suffer, so we'll make an exception and see you tomorrow to check it's all still ok. Can you get the hospital in Scotland to send your X-rays?"

I phoned the hospital in Scotland - "Can I get my X-rays sent to my local hospital please?"

"We need your hospital to send us an official request through our system."

I phoned the Fracture Clinic again, "They say you have to request it from them."

"We can't do that. They need to send it to us."

I phoned them again, "No, I'm afraid we can't release them without a request - here's what they need to do..."

One last call to the locals, "Ok, we realise this is not what you want to be doing, what with your broken leg, so we'll make an exception just this once and call them." (Well thank @@@ for that!)

I sent up a silent prayer that there was someone willing to make exceptions on my behalf, and thought I'd try my luck with the Dr's again, now I new I was in the right, but immediately, I could tell I had the same receptionist...

"Ok, I think there might have been a misunderstanding last time, but I really need some stuff to help me get around the house and I've been told you are supposed to help me sort out that and my continuing care, and I'm close to being housebound at the moment."

"I can make you an appointment to come in to the surgery to be assessed."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to get someone here to assess what I need at home?"

"You have a cast on, so you're not housebound. You should come here." (Aaagh!)

My parents appeared and began a complicated mime and exaggerated mouth movement routine that suggested they had another solution, so I politely declined and rang off.

"You can get the stuff you need from the Red Cross Medical Loans place," explained Mum, "and if we can call them as soon as they open, we should be able to get it today!"

I'd forgotten that, since quite a bit of my Mum is bionic these days, she's had lots of practice at this. She reeled off a list, "Commode, so you can cope downstairs without a loo, wheel-chair, raised loo seat with handles. Do you need any extra seats, leg-rests?"

Almost before I'd realised it, my Dad had dashed off and was sorting it all out for me. I was very thankful, because I'd have been in trouble otherwise. Long-distance crutching was still very much a dream (did I mention I'm not exactly stick-thin?), and I had had visions of trying to get all the way down the corridor at the Dr's with my wobbly crutch technique and sore wrists.

"Time to stab yourself" - my darling husband proffered me a wipe and the syringe for my daily anticoagulant injection. I had a go - it hurt, but it settled down quite quickly.

J organised a bit of special leave so he could look after me for a few days to help me get to hospital and until I got "crutch competent", and suddenly Dad was back, bearing gifts.

The chair was serviceable but with quite small wheels and the commode was old but clean (phew). We had realised that there wasn't enough room for the toilet seat gadget in our bathroom layout, but that also meant that the windowsill was handy to push up on, so I could manage.

Thrilled with the possibility of spending a bit of family time downstairs, I put on some loose pyjamas,  and managed to get downstairs on my bum (holding onto a stool and lowering myself on to the top step before a slow slide down). Crutch-walk to the sofa, loads of cushions under leg, Masterchef on the telly - not too bad, though it had taken ages to get downstairs.

The commode proved serviceable and stable, and announcing I hoped to use it was a great way to make the kids leave the room quickly! After a few hours, we had the going back up issue. I could do it, but not well, because my left knee was a wee bit shocked by the extra work it was needing to do. At the top, hauling myself onto the stool was ok, but it was really difficult not to put some weight on the right foot when I tried to stand - more practice needed. And with the back-slab cast, it already felt like I was getting blisters, even with the small amount of movement I'd been doing.

Getting upstairs, I remembered that just before I'd left, I had ordered some melatonin to see if it could improve the quality of my sleep and reduce my reflux problems. I had a quick google to see if it was a problem for those with broken bones - no, in fact it would be good because it should help bone formation - excellent!

I took a capsule, and after a little bit of reading, fell into a wonderfully deep sleep.


Lessons learned:

1. Hospitals don't always communicate with each other in the same way. Apparently distance isn't necessarily the problem as my hospital reported having problems getting X-rays from the next county!

2. Your medical practice should actually be able to arrange for kit to be brought to you, if you don't have ninja Grannies and Grandads to get it for you.

3. If you have problems with getting your Drs to help, then Red Cross Medical Loans should be able to help you. This page should have the details to link you to your area 

4. Remember that you are going to take a while to get up crutching strength, especially if you aren't light as a feather.