Back home - in one piece

[bruce1530]

Sincere thanks to all who offered support and kind words after my recent “off”, as mentioned in the “today’s ride” thread. I was travelling quite slowly along a moor road when I came round a bend and discovered that a ditch had flooded and frozen over, so there was about 10 yards of wet ice underneath me.

Ended up at A&E, unable to walk, suspected broken hip. Fortunately, this diagnosis was just the A&E doctor erring on the side of caution - the orthopaedic specialist eventually decided that it wasn’t broken. That’s quite a relief!

Spent 2 days enjoying the NHS’s finest hospitality. I’ve been joking about it here and in other messages, talking about the strange characters you encounter in the hospital, the experiences you have in the wards, and the effects of morphine and other pain relief.

Home now, on crutches. Pain is getting better. They wouldn’t let me take any of the “special painkillers” home.


But being serious for a moment, I am completely overwhelmed by the quality of the care that I received. Our NHS is something very special. The doctors, physios, domestic and portering staff, catering - everyone - they were all excellent.

In particular, the level of care I received from the nursing staff was outstanding - these people are just incredible. The high-dependency orthopaedic ward is a strange place - many of the patients were suffering from dementia and age-related illnesses as well, having suffered falls in nursing homes. What was particularly noticeable was the care, humour and compassion that the nurses showed towards some of their more troubled patients. Quite incredible and humbling.

 

[fossyant]

In-patient care is great - once you are out it's shocking. I had a 46 day visit 12 months ago after getting knocked off my bike, sustaining an unstable fracture to two vertebrae, 4 broken ribs and a lung injury. But once out, I was on my own. NHS physio was a waste of time, my GP useless and I only saw my consultant once shortly after getting out - not seen him since.

We had lots of elderly patients on the spinal unit, and the staff were struggling to cope with all the dementia patients - they'd forget why they were there and get up and try walking - I was constantly trying to keep one chap in bed for the 6 weeks. Some very sad cases of cancers that had spread to the spine, then the likes of me who had had an accident. The lad that shared a room with me had fallen down stairs (well just slipped backwards).

The morphine was good, over 120 mg a day !!! Just taken one of my slow acting ones I saved for bad days - out of 14 tablets, I've got 4 left that were given to me in January.

Get yourself to a private physio. Plenty of ibuprofen to get the swelling down.

 

[biggs682]

@bruce1530 glad to hear you are on the mend fingers crossed for a speedy recovery

 

[srw]

Sincere thanks to all who offered support and kind words after my recent “off”, as mentioned in the “today’s ride” thread. I was travelling quite slowly along a moor road when I came round a bend and discovered that a ditch had flooded and frozen over, so there was about 10 yards of wet ice underneath me.

Ended up at A&E, unable to walk, suspected broken hip. Fortunately, this diagnosis was just the A&E doctor erring on the side of caution - the orthopaedic specialist eventually decided that it wasn’t broken. That’s quite a relief!

Spent 2 days enjoying the NHS’s finest hospitality. I’ve been joking about it here and in other messages, talking about the strange characters you encounter in the hospital, the experiences you have in the wards, and the effects of morphine and other pain relief.

Home now, on crutches. Pain is getting better. They wouldn’t let me take any of the “special painkillers” home.


But being serious for a moment, I am completely overwhelmed by the quality of the care that I received. Our NHS is something very special. The doctors, physios, domestic and portering staff, catering - everyone - they were all excellent.

In particular, the level of care I received from the nursing staff was outstanding - these people are just incredible. The high-dependency orthopaedic ward is a strange place - many of the patients were suffering from dementia and age-related illnesses as well, having suffered falls in nursing homes. What was particularly noticeable was the care, humour and compassion that the nurses showed towards some of their more troubled patients. Quite incredible and humbling.

Agreed. The staff do a great job with the shockingly penny-pinching hand they've been dealt by government. The system is creaking very badly, and desperately needs investment. What inefficiencies and uncaringnesses I've seen since being admitted with jaundice a couple of days ago have been everything to do with shoddy system design (health and social care) and nothing to do with the medical and personal care processes, which have been superb.

 

[Dave 123]

@bruce1530 Glad you're out! Keep warm and get well soon.

 

[MiK1138]

Sincere thanks to all who offered support and kind words after my recent “off”, as mentioned in the “today’s ride” thread. I was travelling quite slowly along a moor road when I came round a bend and discovered that a ditch had flooded and frozen over, so there was about 10 yards of wet ice underneath me.

Ended up at A&E, unable to walk, suspected broken hip. Fortunately, this diagnosis was just the A&E doctor erring on the side of caution - the orthopaedic specialist eventually decided that it wasn’t broken. That’s quite a relief!

Spent 2 days enjoying the NHS’s finest hospitality. I’ve been joking about it here and in other messages, talking about the strange characters you encounter in the hospital, the experiences you have in the wards, and the effects of morphine and other pain relief.

Home now, on crutches. Pain is getting better. They wouldn’t let me take any of the “special painkillers” home.


But being serious for a moment, I am completely overwhelmed by the quality of the care that I received. Our NHS is something very special. The doctors, physios, domestic and portering staff, catering - everyone - they were all excellent.

In particular, the level of care I received from the nursing staff was outstanding - these people are just incredible. The high-dependency orthopaedic ward is a strange place - many of the patients were suffering from dementia and age-related illnesses as well, having suffered falls in nursing homes. What was particularly noticeable was the care, humour and compassion that the nurses showed towards some of their more troubled patients. Quite incredible and humbling.

I wish someone would tell our Media this, Like you i had excellent treatment and aftercare after an Off, yet to read the papers or listen to the BBC our NHS is failling

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Sincere thanks to all who offered support and kind words after my recent “off”, as mentioned in the “today’s ride” thread. I was travelling quite slowly along a moor road when I came round a bend and discovered that a ditch had flooded and frozen over, so there was about 10 yards of wet ice underneath me.

Ended up at A&E, unable to walk, suspected broken hip. Fortunately, this diagnosis was just the A&E doctor erring on the side of caution - the orthopaedic specialist eventually decided that it wasn’t broken. That’s quite a relief!

Spent 2 days enjoying the NHS’s finest hospitality. I’ve been joking about it here and in other messages, talking about the strange characters you encounter in the hospital, the experiences you have in the wards, and the effects of morphine and other pain relief.

Home now, on crutches. Pain is getting better. They wouldn’t let me take any of the “special painkillers” home.


But being serious for a moment, I am completely overwhelmed by the quality of the care that I received. Our NHS is something very special. The doctors, physios, domestic and portering staff, catering - everyone - they were all excellent.

In particular, the level of care I received from the nursing staff was outstanding - these people are just incredible. The high-dependency orthopaedic ward is a strange place - many of the patients were suffering from dementia and age-related illnesses as well, having suffered falls in nursing homes. What was particularly noticeable was the care, humour and compassion that the nurses showed towards some of their more troubled patients. Quite incredible and humbling.

Glad to hear your out and not too badly hurt. My care when I was in the coronary ward recently was excellent. We had two elderly patients in our ward who had finished their treatment but couldn't go because there was no beds for them to go to, one had dementia and watching what the nurses had to do to care for him had me full of admiration for them.