A long and dusty road: A Busy few days...

We have been having a few busy days, the Christmas cards are all made and ready for delivery along with the 2023 calendars. It was a good job I started early because Tony had a fall on Friday, December 9th at 5:30am. I pressed the buzzer for the carelink, who was very helpful and told me "call an ambulance". I could have done that without asking them! I dialled 999 and asked for an ambulance, explaining that my 76-year-old partner had fallen and that it looked like he had broken his wrist. I answered all the other questions they asked they told me the ambulance should be with us in about 40 minutes but it could be considerably longer. I was to ensure that Tony did not show any signs of shock and to keep him calm. The ambulance arrived in about 45 minutes so we were fortunate. Tony was by this time in extreme pain, the paramedics gave him some paracetamol which didn't touch the sides of course. The paramedics were worried because Tony couldn't feel his fingers, so they had to check whether to take him to Pinderfields or Jimmy's in Leeds. Thankfully it was decided that he would go to Pinderfields.

We arrived at Pinderfields and bypassed the regular A&E department, and we went onto critical care. Tony was seen by a doctor who said he should be seen asap. We sat in the same place for over 2 hours before anything else happened. Then Tony was taken for an x-ray, Tony certainly does things in style, he had

Fractured it here

Broken it in two places

As if that wasn't enough he had dislocated it as well.

After being x-rayed a back slab was put on Tony's wrist, this is like a half pot that just covers the back of the arm in a pot and the front is just a bandage. The doctor said this should hold the wrist in place until the swelling went down.

Tony had been given some morphine orally for his pain but it hadn't given him much relief. So the doctor came and put a cannula in his arm and gave him a second dose through the cannula. This gave him a little bit of relief for a while.

The doctor was a very nice person, he came from Egypt, and he couldn't do enough for Tony. He made sure that he was comfortable, he got him more pain relief, another shot of morphine an hour and a half after the last one.

The meals came around by this time Tony was feeling a lot better so he had a meal,

Fish in parsley sauce with potatoes and veg, a cup of coffee and what did I get? a cup of tea.

By this time we had been in the hospital for about 91/2 hours. The orthopaedics couldn't decide whether or not Tony's wrist needed to be operated on, or whether it needed a plate put in. Finally, after 10 hours & 25 minutes, they told us we could go home but he had to go back on the 13th to be x-rayed again and a full pot put on.

Elvira took us to the hospital on the 13th Tony had his wrist x-rayed his half pot removed a full pot put on, x-rayed again then waited to see the doctor. When he saw the doctor he asked Tony if he had any questions, Tony told him he still could not feel his fingers properly, and the doctor sent him back to the fracture clinic he had his pot removed, a half pot back on x-rayed again because there was still too much swelling for him to have a full pot on. Tony was told to go home again and return in 3 days' time on the 16th to see if the swelling had gone down. Once again Elvira took us to the hospital, Tony had his wrist x-rayed, then his half pot removed, a full pot put on, back to x-ray, and back to fracture clinic to see the doctor. What I have failed to tell you is all this going between the clinic and the x-ray I was pushing Tony in a wheelchair and he is not lightweight the hospital wheelchairs are like shopping trollies they have a mind of their own. This time the full pot stayed on, hopefully, there is no need for any surgery and we return to the hospital on the 23rd for Tony's next appointment.

Tony has some beautiful colours apparently there are really psychedelic ones under the pot.