The most amazing talent I've ever watched!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NDL2fsTcik

This is truely amazing!

Freedom and Wheel chair adventures

15th June 2008

My brother moved out just before Christmas (he is 24)
My parents are now retired
I live away from home and just visit usually (about every 4 – 6 weeks).
Therefore me breaking myself is slightly inconvenient as I can’t work at all (I can’t take kiddies for a walk in the woods let alone take them caving, gorge walking or climbing).

My parents being retired also means that after 40 years of working, 20 something years of which they were bringing up me and my brother so they are now enjoying their freedom and often go away for short breaks. Plus retiring mid fifties makes sense when my grandpa retired at 65 and died at 68. Not really much freedom.

The problem is that mum and dad booked a week on holiday just before I got broken. I can’t go with them because they are going on a walking/exploring/cultural holiday and they have possibly chosen the least accessible location for anyone with a mobility disability.

My mum wanted to cancel but I told her to go. I’ve lived away from home for 4 years now including Uni. A week alone without the ability to walk is just another challenge. I also have the cat to keep me company.

In a spark of independence I went to the village in the wheelchair. This is a general up hill for about a mile maybe a bit more. I don’t know how people do it, maybe because they have to.

Anyway I had a few moments like;

• Going down kerbs and faceplanting into the road.
• Dropping all the stuff on my lap on the floor in a supermarket and being watched my increasingly impatient members of the public whilst I tried to pick everything up…nobody offered to help.

Of course people can be helpful and open doors for you, and pick things off shelves for you. But I also felt like I got talked to like I was special in some way, or maybe that's just me. Plus, EVERYBODY stares at you, it's creepy!!!

• I nearly broke the door on the pharmacy because the ramp was so steep going up it forwards nearly backflipped me and going up it backwards meant I couldn’t reach the door handle.

What is the point in having a wheelchair ramp, if when you get to the door you can’t open it any way?

• I also found that where I usually cross the road, where they’ve put the sloping kerb, because they’ve made the roadside pretty with hedges you can’t see the cars coming until you are mid way across the road. I never noticed this when I was walking. This must be a problem for kiddies too. Maybe town planners should spend a day in a wheelchair…
  

Fracture Clinic

Wed 11th June

I went to the fracture clinic on Wed 11th June and they cut off my cast which is good because showering was a right pain, trying to keep it dry. I put a bin bag over it but try and secure a bin bag to your leg when you are allergic to duck tape, selotape, plasters... The only thing im not allergic to is micropore and thats not waterproof and generally falls off when it gets wet. Also the cast was killing my hip. I never realised how heavy and cumbersome those things are.

My foot/ankle was also marginally swollen. *sarcasum* I should have a picture of my normal ankle in comparison really but it is not hard to see that my foot is swollen. I have the boniest ankles normally. And my toes look tiny in comparison. Bruising has started too.

I was marginally disapointed because I wanted a blue cast. Blue being my favourite colour and all. But then I got this robot foot which is awesome. Soo comfy too. I googled how much they cost... £105 !!! I wonder how many people fail to give them back (like crutches) then complain about the state of the NHS when the NHS must loose loads of money with the things they lend out!!!

My funky new robot boot. It is padded with foam and inflates with cushionning also.

Except i've broken the deflator thing already but the cartridge of a pen works just as well as it depresses the valve.

A & E - In plaster

Soo 5 hours after falling I actually got to A & E (8th June 2008).

I was very lucky in that even though it was sunday night there was still a fair few drunks, people who had had coughs for the past two weeks and a general busyness in A & E made up mostly of people who could probably have waited 12 hrs to see a doctor.

I think the fact I had injured myself 5 hrs ago and my ankle was quite impressively huge and I couldn't weight bare in the slightest also helped.

Still, I was entertained as where many people by a very very drunk girl who must have been about my age but appeared to have been abandonned by all her friends. She was stagering around and in one hand she had a hand bag and in the other a shoe. There was no sign anywhere of her other shoe, but she didn't seem to notice. She kept wandering up to the counter and trying to order a drink. When she found the phone which phones direct to the taxi rank she seemed very confused that she couldn't get though to her friend. Eventually she managed to work it out and hold the reciever long enough to order herself her cab. Then she staggered down the "corridor" between the chair and the wall (probably about 5metres wide) bouncing off both and falling over occasionally, the doors opened and she disapeared into the night.

So I was called through, and seen by a very nice nurse and doctor. Trying to explain how I did it was hard. It's not like the hospital near me specialises in outdoor sport injuries. Anyways I got sent to xray and hopped all the way there, I was on a being independent mission, despite the offer of a wheelchair.

There was a girl who had fallen off a slide in a childrens play area in a pub and possibly broken her arm. Her mum was not impressed to be giving up her drinking time sitting in A & E with a broken daughter. I was also shocked and saddened by the number of old grannies that I saw in wheelchairs who looked that they'd fallen down the stairs or taken a beating from someone. And the old men and women who seemed confused about where they where.

I got my xrays back and joked and talked with the docs and nurses and nosed at my xray. I was a bit sarcastic and giggly and they where really nice. There were drunk people on the ward and some crazy drunk women beconing me to go over and talk to her. The nurses were saying "nooo don't go" to me.

I was put in a half cast because me leg was huge and still swelling.

I partially dislocated my ankle and it nicely reduced/relocated itself.

I Hairline fractured my foot.

I Have severe soft tissue damage.

Broken the base of my (leg bone) although I also have an old fracture near the new one

The women who plastered it seemed like she would rather be anywhere than plastering my leg, and the conversation was a bit abrupt and went a bit like this.

"How did you do it?"

"I fell when I was climbing in North Wales"

"That was a bit stupid wasn't it!"

"Well I didn't intend to do it, I just slipped, it happens"

"Where you on a course?"

"No why?"

"Because if you where you could sue them for this claim some compensation for this injury!"

"I wouldn't do that and I was just climbing with a friend"

"Was he more qualified than you? You should try get some money out of it!!!"

"I'm more qualified, but he's more experienced, I just fell, like you could fall off a kerb"

"Ahh but if you fell off a kerb there could be something wrong with the kerb and you could sue the council.......blah blah blah blah...

And so it went on. This world is a crazy place. Everybody wants to sue somebody else. This viewpoint really shouldn't be forced on people when they've just been injured. I'm broken and i'll deal with it, I was my fault and nobody elses.

The only thing we agreed on was that if I had fallen off a kerb I might have actually got some pain relief other than some weak coedine and I doubt it would have taken 5 hrs to get to A & E.

However; I was drunk....I can't remember or

I tripped and fell off the kerb, really isn't much of a story is it. If your going to hurt yourself you have to go the whole way, gotta do it in style, pull a decent sickie, one that is acceptable in my line of work.

(Leg in plaster to knee)

Apart from that my experience with A & E was excellent. I got the nice doc (who was actually pretty hot) to email me my x-rays and I was in and out in an hour and a half. Pretty damn good if you ask me...and it's free.

Fractue clinic - Ankle photo