TARZAN....not quite! 13 July 2015
It was about 19.30, one
minute I was happily working on pergola repairs under our wisteria walk then
suddenly I was suspended by my left arm...feet only a couple of feet from the
floor but as I looked at said arm, it
gave an unpleasant scrunching noise and changed direction!
Looking up I thought...this never happened to Tarzan!
Dropped to the ground quickly, arm not responding to any
signals! Found Ruth and explained we had
to go to hospital pronto!!
Managed to get car out, while she was sorting dogs etc. and
sat waiting. No pain yet, but I knew it would be coming.....15 years or so
earlier, I dislocated my right arm or rather one of the heavy horses did it for
me!!
Made it to Saumur quite quickly..... met nice nurse in
admissions bit whose grandmother lives
in Varennes sur Loire and who we do actually know!
“What is the pain like?
Oh 7, right here are a couple of paracetemol!!!”
The French do not like Ibuprofen which really works well for me!
After a couple of goes on intravenous morphine..... they
jacked up the dose a trifle and pain level reached 10...speechless by now and
it is 10pm.
OK, x-ray is free now
so off for a picture or two to reveal it was just a dislocation, although as
the top of my arm was halfway down my ribcage, they had had their doubts!!
One beefy female doctor and two younger girls could not move
it so heavy mob called in looking like two prop forwards and the gas man. I did
explain to the lady doctor that the last time in UK the male doctor had put his
foot on my chest to get sufficient leverage!! She was amused but said she had
no intention of placing her foot on my chest!
It was all over in
seconds then and I woke up wearing a huge wrap round gadget resembling half a
straight jacket!!
Ruth went off home as they decided to keep me in for the
night (it is now almost midnight).
Nice bed in a corridor just outside the treatment room.
Only one disturbance during the night, when two gendarme’s
arrived with a lad who looked to be the worse for drugs. They “handcuffed “ his arms to the cot sides of a bed and left!
In the morning, the young lad was sleepy and quiet, but two
brawny chaps wheeled him and his bed
away into goodness knows where...certainly not outside!
I had a light breakfast...and Ruth collected me at about 10
am just in time to spruce up for the 14 July celebrations in the town.
Just to say I must have looked a fright arriving in the hospital wearing oldest shorts and
oldest gardening shirt and two days beard!
The nurse who found me the bed also found a “wet wipe” face
cloth of sorts and did a quick clean up of my knees before allowing me into the
bed! Just like being 5 all over again!
Oh yes, back in town that next morning;
we not only met the nurse’s grandmother.... but her mother as well.
Ends
RKS July 2015
