The Crash, Or, Getting a Nice Rest the Hard Way

As many folks know, I crashed my bike on 9th December.
Here is a little photostory about the aftermath of that crash.

Look at all that choice.
I love the NHS!
This is the real menu, photographed from my real hospital bed.
The quality is a bit iffy, because I only have an aging smartphone with me.

Me, back in the Summer

I had recently ordered some new books.
When will I get a chance to read them.

This became a fairly regular experience after the crash.
Being issued with painkillers 4 times a day.
A couple of paracetamol, and a couple of codeine.
Early on, i got a couple of "top-ups" of morphine, too.

Looks like a mild abrasion of my left knee when I hit the road.
As I was knocked out for about 20 minutes, I don't remember a thing about it.
I was cycling along, then next thing I remember, the ambulance was already there, and I was trying (and failing) to pick myself up off a muddy minor country road.

Took a some impact to the head, too. My metal glasses/spectacles got bent a bit, so I bent them back before the photo.
I have a fairly hard head, so just a touch of concussion.
Th hospital did a CT scan on my head, just to be sure about anything more serious.

My shoulder hurts ...

My "good" arm with the lovely little medical sockets they like so much.
"Cannular", apparently.
I got through four of these during my stay.
Arms like a pincushion :-)

As you can see, I'm not that bad, because I am taking selfies the day after the crash!
The cannular makes an intersting bracelet.

The minutia of injury.
I seem to have a "blood blister" from the crash on the end on my finger on my "bad" arm.  

Looks like a minor wrist mark, too.
Also on my "bad" arm.

Head's getting better already!
Hair tends to get a bit crazy in hospitals :-)
The first few days I was really drifting.
Being awake on and off at night, napping during the day.
How much of it was the injury, and how much of it was the opiates?
Probably a bit of each!

My wife came to see me, and brought in some icons for my little cabinet next to my hospital bed.
The little one is my "name saint".
And, yes, it was in my pannier at teh time of the crash.
Draw whatever conclusions you want.
The straight facts are that it was with me when I crashed, and I am taking a picture of it a day or two after ;-)

Some or other scuff.
I broke a couple of ribs in the crash, as well as my shoulder.

Progress - going to the bathroom all by myself :-)
With the dizzy spells, I had to pace myself.
There are lots of handy rails which I hung onto, so imagine the experience a bit like walking on a ship in rolling swell.
As long as you pace yourself, and walk at the "good" moments, you'll be fine.
So much nicer to wrap my old fleece jacket round my shoulders (actually, my good arm is in the sleeve!).
Your own clothes, and visiting the toilet by yourself, add up to a lot of patient morale, methinks!

Bit of a bruise forming on my forehead, above and (in the pic) to the right of the red scuff.

Ooh, yummee.
Food.
Hospital is not the easiest way to eat out, but, in the UK at least, it is free ;-)
Think this was a lentil curry.

HUGE number of meal options!
Not like the old days of gruel at all!
I could get used to this!

Funky cheesecake.
Life just gets better and better!

Apparently it was "Winterberry".
Never mind all that - it was tasty!

More food.
Veggie sausage and pickle on white bread.
I'm loving it.

The price of a free lunch.
Another day, another hole in the arm.
My traetment was complicated by me already being on warfarin (Coumarin)

At night, I was waking up often.
Sometimes dizzy.
One night I had to ring for the night nurse, because I was so disorientated that I was afraid I would fall out of bed.
The night nurse duly put the "sides" up on the bed for me.
Opiates? Concussion? Either or both, I suspect!

After the darkest night dawn comes.
With a nice cup of tea!

Getting fancy.
Instead of just a folded-bandage sling, I was given one of these fancy padded ones with velcro adjustments.
1st class treatment indeed!
(The registrar gave me a second one a couple of weeks fter the operation, when I saw him)

That'll be the (vegetarian) lentil shepherd's pie :-)

And old favourite, the steamed pudding,
welcome fare for a hungry (and slightly broken( cyclist!

Getting there. Still got that bruise on my head.
My wife brought me my hairbrish, so I can have less wierd looking hair.
I've kept it pretty well for a guy of 52, methinks.

Home Sweet Home.
This is where I lived for the week.
Funky adjustments on the bed, too!

What again?
More food!

And, again, more food ;-)
I could get used to this!

Pills and teas. The daily routine!

Looks like another couple of superficial injuries.
They don't hurt. But that is because if you have enough painkillers for something else, you wn't feel the small things.

Looks alright to me ...
(my shoulder looks dislocated, but isn't. I have broken the end off my scapula)

A chance to read a classic novel, methinks.
However, Conrad uses a complicated writing style in this one,
and there are large blocks of solid text with long sentences.
With my head as it is, I had to quickly abandon my attempts to read this ;-(

The "scores on the doors".
My medical notes.
Folks not eating properly are common in hospitals, so bizarrely being thin is a warning sign as is having a low resting pulse.
Being obese is not a warning sgn on this chart. Me - I have a BMI of about 24, so I am in the "happy middle" of being not overweight, yet not thin either,
I picked up a "caution" score for the 48 bpm (although for me this is not unusual).
The nurses were asking me more than once a day if i was "althletic" That worked down to a pulse of 51.
Below that is a warning mark.
But I never got above a couple of warning marks for everything combined.
The more you get, the more often they monitor you, and if the warning score goes high enough,
you get checked out thoroughly to find out what is up.
But like I said, on a 12+ point warning scale, I never got past about 2 ;-)
I'm just here for the free lunch!

I learn something every day.
Apparently BMI can be estimated from arm circumference.
Clearly some folks are very broken, and can't be just weighed/
Because I am only here for the food, I just stepped onto the scales for the nurse.

More food. Porridge for breakfast.
Anna gives me prunes and currants at home, but this will do well enough!

Fish and chips, and some sort of pudding.
If this is life, then I'm loving it!

Oh. I appear to have sorung a modest leak.
Probably one of the many holes they keep putting in my arm.

Funky.
This is number 3 of the 4 I got through.
Taped down like mad to stop it falling out at night (like number 2)
I am starting to run out of decent veins by this point, so this one is a bit small (which is why I had number 4 fitted later!)

My head is looking a bit better, anyhows!

Lying like that make my chin look fat.
Must be dinner coming up, because I am smiling ;-)
I crashed on a Friday, and it is now the following Tuesday, and I am used to breakfast (and dinner, and tea!) in bed.
Like a fancy hotel, the service in here is fantastic!

A long day.
No breakfast for me today, because I am "under the knife"
What should I have for supper, though?

Hot chocolate, just for the change.
And ginger nuts.
Just what I need after a nice nap when the surgeon worked his magic this morning!

Having another attempt at the book.
Nope.
I can't even get through a paragraph or two without losing my place.
If the text was abit bigger, I think I'd be in with more of a chance!

Char and painkillers. Same as it ever was :-)

Char and biccies - definitely a step in the right direction!

I've forgotten what the pink was for.
I think it might be to counter the side effect of the codeine - constipation ...

This Way Up.
the arrow is just a final "failsafe" to ensure the surgeon does the correct shoulder.
Only takes a minute for the nurse to draw the arrow on.
Old-fashioned low tech solutions.
If the computer files get hacked, the surgeon can just look for the arrow!
In my case it is easy.
One shoulder is busted, and the other one isnt!

More to follow in due course!