Home
Guest Posts
Accidents Happen Part 3
Post Date 8 September 2019
By PocketPete
July is underway and things are certainly moving in the right direction. They removed the pins many months ago and I commence physio at the hospital. I'm seeing a very nice young lady called 'Grace' who can only see me once every 2 weeks for 20 minutes. Hmm, probably not enough physio I think but I try my best to do the exercises and torture myself. I am somewhat hampered by my foot as the physio is all on my knee as my foot is still not healed. the fracture blister wounds are still open and causing problems.
I can now get in and out of the shower without too much problem but I still won't attempt it unless my foot is encased in a plastic bag and Paula is around in case I need assistance. I can get around the house pretty well now using my crutches and weight bearing on the leg is at about 85%. I can manage to get across the road to my daughter's without to much effort and I'm down to maybe 6 pain killers per day.
July 5th - I go to the hospital for yet another appointment and my consultant informs me my injury is really pretty bad (as if I hadn't noticed!). He informs me I have severe compartment syndrome. This is a pressure build up in my foot muscles which is causing the nerve damage. He then says this pressure is stopping the open wound from healing as the pressure is causing over-granulation of the wound from the internal pressure.
I will probably have to have a skin graft from my bum onto my foot. So if I play football that will be like kicking myself in the arse. Hmm, doesn't sound great. He doesn't tell me when or if the nerve damage will recover or if this pressure thing will stop or when the wound will heal. It's like they are talking about me and that I'm not actually in the room.
He asks that the nurse dresses my wound and that I arrange for the district nurse to dress me twice a week to try and keep the wound clean. A few minutes later a really old Irish nurse bumbles in and says she is here to dress my wound. She grabs my foot in her extremely fat hands and looks at my foot for all of 5 seconds and says in her strong Irish voice "For god's sake these bloody doctors have no idea do they?"
She disappears and returns and starts talking to herself, getting packets of swabs and stuff arranged on a tray. "Oh Bejesus why do I bloody bother!" A lollipop stick appears from a jar and is rubbed all over my wound. "There you go a bit of silver nitrate will sort that Out."
She explains these doctors don't know what they are doing and that during the war (I'm not sure which war) they used silver nitrate to stop wounds from getting infected and to encourage them to heal. "Come back Friday I will treat you again. Bloody doctor's, skin graft my arse." The hatred of doctors is very evident.
I return on the Friday and she takes off my bandage and I can see my wound is closed and virtually healed. "There!" she says in her Irish tone "told you so. Old school does the trick again." She rubs on the lollipop stick again and says "That's you then, you're cured. Bloody useless idiots they are are bejesus damn and begora. See the district nurse and get it changed twice a week."
I return the following week to the fracture clinic and my wound is virtually healed/gone. The doctor looks at it and says that its a miracle and that the district nurses have done a great job. I point out it was the Irish nurse and her Silver Nitrate. He shrugs and goes "Oh well sometimes that helps" and scurries of to his next patient leaving me somewhat bemused. So when in doubt at a hospital seek out the oldest nurse in the place and she will sort you out. Maybe with leeches and some blood letting - but you will be cured.
July goes by and the weather's nice so I can sit out side and enjoy the sun even if I can't go very far. By July I am managing with one crutch, with difficulty.
8th July - decide to take my car out. It's a manual Hyundai. I find it's really difficult to drive, extremely painful on my foot. I manage to get to Tesco and back in one piece. I'm going to have to change my car to an automatic.
11th July. My foot is really bad today, was it the driving or walking? Every step is agony. Back to A&E where it seems that I have twisted my ankle somehow (after a 4 hour wait of course). I don't think so. Something has moved in my foot I can tell.
The following day I'm still in agony. 16 pain killers a day? No way this is a strained ankle as it hurts when I don't even put weight on it. I stay in bed and I realise I can feel my third toe which I haven't been able to do since the accident. I think the pain are the nerves healing a bit, meaning I can feel more pain than usual.
21st July. It's a miracle my toe nails have started growing again on my bad foot. Yep definite growth of the nails.
August arrives and I decide to buy a new car. The Hyundai is drive-able but I'm sure an automatic will be better. I drive to a few of the local garages and they will give me bugger all for mine in part ex and I'm pretty miffed off. Also I need cruise control which only seems to be fitted to some models, usually the most expensive models. It's the same for automatics they only seem to be fitted on the top models.
Eventually after some research I find a lot of disabled people are picking the Suzuki Baleno. It's a boring old fart's car but it has a simple auto gear box with cruise control. It also has flappy paddles which change gear. I test drive one and it's fine. I find out the paddles can be altered via a laptop to operate the accelerator for a very small fee. Hmm, that will help me as my right foot struggles to operate the accelerator.
I buy a used one, ex-demonstrator, and they mod it for me. It's a cheap car but it seems to work OK. Nice to be back on the road, I can drive OK and venture out to visit my parents near the lake district. I arrive tired but OK. I wouldn't like to travel much further.
My sick pay finally runs out and I apply for benefits. As expected I am not entitled to any. Apparently I have to pay into the social funds for my entire life via tax and National Insurance but I'm not entitled to anything back as I have worked hard all my life and have accumulated too much. If I was an unemployed scrounger living in social housing I would be entitled to a mobility car and £169 per week. Not that I'm bitter or anything.....
I am still suffering from flash backs and such and I'm pretty depressed. I eventually see the hospital neurologist who had examined my MRI and Cat scans 4 months after my accident rather than at the time. "Oh yes I expected a few mental problems with all the brain bruising you suffered" he says (first I heard of it). "You should have seen me months ago for treatment" he says. He prescribes me some tablets which should help. I'm not one for tablets but they do help take the edge off the anxiety, depression, PTSD or whatever they are calling being fed up these days.
August is pretty damn hot. I'm driving well now and walking with only one stick and can even manage small distances without any sticks eg around the house nipping to the loo etc. It's still a pain going shopping up and down the isles or walking around the hospital and my doctor suggests getting a disabled badge. I look into this and it seems I'm not entitled to one as the injury has to be permanent. Well my foot should eventually heal even if it takes several years.
If I was receiving disability benefits then I would be entitled to one. hmm, I apply online and send off my photo and stuff. I was then asked to go to see the council disability lady. She seemed very nice and I explained my injury. She turned me down saying as my wife could drive she could drop me off and then park the vehicle. I explained she works Monday to Friday, how could she drop me off at the hospital mid week? She stated I could appeal and recommended that I did, she even filled in the form. Two days later a nurse rang me up and stated she had looked at my medical records and I could have the badge. It seems the council lady could not look at my medical records as she was not medically qualified.
So I can now park in disabled bays. I guess this is my only perk of this accident and I must admit it does make life much easier. It's not a licence to park anywhere as you can still get parking tickets but it helps get closer to you destination like the bank, hospital etc. But you always have to check as some car parks make you pay the same as everyone else. They do give you 2 hours more time to allow you to get on foot to your destination and back. You are also exempt from several toll crossing and roads if you send your registration number off. For example the Birmingham toll road and Ren's closest crossing over the Runcorn bridge and the London congestion charge.
Now my wound has healed up and I am a bit better, but I need more physio. My friend suggests the police treatment centre at Harrogate. I had forgotten about the police physio centre. It was set up in 1900's by a kind philanthropic lady who thought the police deserved a convalescent home when they got injured and needed help. As a retired officer I was still entitled to go.
Serving officers are allowed two week residential stays and retired officers 1 week residential stays per calendar year. I contacted them and was informed I couldn't attend as the rules had changed in 2016 which required all retired officers to pay £3.80per month. This was forced on the centre which is a charity due to dwindling police numbers. Ah the good old recession and austerity.
I immediately downloaded the relevant forms and sent off my direct debit to start paying in again and rang them back up. Oh yes we have received your payment details but you still cant come until you have paid in for 12 months. Damn and blast....! She says if you are prepared to pay you can come anytime you like. Oh right how much is that then?
Well the cost is £2000 per week. But as you are now paying in we will reduce that to £500. Hmm OK the Insurance company will eventually pay that back. So I'm booked in on the Sunday 25th August. I'm looking forward to it. I last went in 1988, the place was nice with great gardens and good food. It was a bit like an old folk's home but I enjoyed my stay.
So off to Harrogate. It's a 2 hour drive by the back roads or an hour and half on the motorway. I take the back roads. I arrive and it's changed such a lot. The place is lovely, they have invested 4.5 million in the place over the last 5 years. New rooms all on-suite, fantastic pool, sauna/spa, aromatherapy rooms, physio rooms etc.
I'm allocated a downstairs room due to my mobility. Then I'm given an examination by the nurse on arrival and the head physio Alison. I'm to receive 4 half hour treatments a day, 9am 10am 2pm and 4pm. These are contrast bathing at 9am and 4pm, massage and physio at 10am and hydrotherapy at 2pm. In between I was expected to have lunch and go in the saunas and steam room and do 10 lengths of the swimming pool. Hard life or what?
I'm given a swing to sit on in the serenity garden which is mine for the week and given K tape treatment and acupuncture and meditation which went well with relaxation classes.
They have activities going on everyday, quiz bingo and such like. They also have an 11 stone sensory dog which you can pet and stroke, its supposed to be very therapeutic. I enjoyed the dog much more than I imagined as can been seen from my photo. For some reason seeing the young police lady stroking the dog was very therapeutic to the men in the room. Many comments were made about the dog after it's visit as you can imagine.
After 5 days I was walking really well and looking forward to going home when the nurse arrived and said they had examined my records. As I had progressed so well they were giving me another week in October after my holiday in Greece. All I had to pay was £100 admin costs. Yippee!
So September will bring a couple of weeks in Greece then back to the police centre the week after. Generally feeling a lot more positive and a lot more agile.
BUT... Today as I write this my foot is agony. I played snooker on Wednesday night and Friday afternoon I over did the walking. Bingo! My foot's swollen and extremely sore. damn...
If you'd like to share your tale on Bikes And Travels click here.
Reader's Comments
Snod said :-
Ah yes that dog picture is just lovely.
19/09/2019 20:26:20 UTC
Borsuk said :-
Greetings Pete.
Glad to see you are finally beginning to mend. Dog stroking seems to be more therapeutic than I ever thought it could be. I also have a sudden desire to be arrested for some unfathomable reason.
19/09/2019 23:07:19 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
Dirty old men.
20/09/2019 08:53:38 UTC
Ross said :-
Hey...I resemble that comment!
Glad to see things seem to be going in the right direction for you, Pete!
21/09/2019 21:03:55 UTC
Henrik said :-
Glad to hear about the progress !!!
I like that old nurse, typical, ask them, not the doctor who carries his own head under the arm.
Nice dog ! wonder what kind of dog ?
As for being arrested, not really, the attributes are a bit over the limit in my opinion :-)
22/09/2019 08:28:55 UTC
Upt'North said :-
Keep up the good work Pete.
What dog?
Upt'North.
22/09/2019 17:33:29 UTC
Henrik said :-
Never mind, guess I found out ,... Leonberger :-)
https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonberger...
22/09/2019 23:39:49 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Last I heard of Pete he was getting a tan on his scabby foot on a Greek island somewhere. I suspect his Mrs is hoping they can pretend they can't come home because they were with Thomas Cook...
23/09/2019 07:43:16 UTC
said :-
Great that you got the Irish nurse. Jeez, imagine they went forward with the skin graft! Also good to hear you found the right car in the Suzuki Baleno. Didn't know they could re-programme one of the paddles to become the accelerator...miracles of modern technology, eh!?!
All the best with your recovery. Hope it really speeds up for you. I still can't get over the fact that it was a careless rider on a motorcycle who caused the accident. Nice picture of the dog and police officer, by the way!
23/09/2019 21:02:43 UTC
Marv said :-
Comment above is from me, Marv!
23/09/2019 21:05:27 UTC
Pocketpete said :-
Yes greece is lovely. Very hot but has started raining today. Still 11 days of lovely weather wasnt bad. And yes we did book the 5 star hotel via thomas cook... so stranded here on skiathos until the civil aviation guys can find a small enough plane to land on this islands extremely small runway.
Ranked number 5 in worlds most dangerous runways. Some lovely videos on YouTube of planes landing here
But we will be back in the UK at some point.
24/09/2019 08:20:54 UTC
Upt'North said :-
Pete of the pocket varietal, if you didn't have bad luck you'd have no luck at all.
Upt'North.
24/09/2019 08:45:37 UTC
CrazyFrog said :-
Sadly, I can echo your sentiments regarding the welfare system Pete. Call me an old cynic, but I think once you've worked and paid in for more than three or four years, your name appears on a government database with the word 'giver' next to it. Us givers will sadly never get anything out of the system we've all spent so long paying in to.
When my 1st wife was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder, my kids were 8 and 9 years old. When my Mrs was dumped back at home after being sectioned in hospital for 6 weeks, she was so doped up she slept until 2pm most days and spent the rest of the day watching the TV. I had to do everything, and I mean everything when I got home from work. I had to carry on working as otherwise we'd have lost the house as we were foolishly buying rather than renting. If they'd have given me even ten pounds a week, I could have afforded to pay someone to clean the house a couple of times a month which would have been a great help, and perhaps I wouldn't have cracked up myself after 9 years of it. Maybe my marriage would have survived, and maybe even my wife (who died a couple of years after I finally left) would still be alive.
I am bitter and twisted btw, as you can probably tell.
Good to hear that your recovery is progressing, though I'm sure you will still have plenty of up's and down's, but it's important to remember the overall trend is upwards.
Best wishes,
Pete.
24/09/2019 13:06:03 UTC
Pocketpete said :-
Crazy frog sorry to hear of your troubles it is a nightmare. Until I spoke with ren recently I was in denial of my own mental issues following this accident. Seems everyone noticed except me.
But I'm taking the tablets which have helped. You dead right about benefits total nightmare. Fortunately we were reasonably well off with some savings. But it doesnt take long to plough through a big chunk especially when your buying new cars and such like.
Even Dole would help but no I'm not poor enough. My pension negates any benefits.
I have a school friend who see every now and then. We left in 1981. He has never had a job in all that time. Yet he has a house runs an old car and had 3 kids and goes to tenerife every year. Hmmm I'm doing something wrong.
But i'm not jyst bitter and twisted.. im god damn totally bitter and double twisted.
But hopefully i will receive lots of compensation at some point in 2028 if I live that long.
Every day in greece I see people riding at 50mph in shorts no helmets t shirt and flip flops. Omg terrifying
24/09/2019 19:58:36 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
I do accept that there are people who play the system and get benefits they aren't entitled to. But we never know the whole story. What we do know is that over the past 10 years or so we've seen a huge rise in homelessness; the erosion of workers' rights till they're almost non-existent and savage cuts to healthcare and local services. All this while the richest 1% of people in the UK own more than twenty times the wealth of the poorest 20%. And this is supposed to be the 5th or 6th richest country in the world. If we can't look after the most vulnerable in our society we don't deserve to call ourselves civilised.
So to be honest I'm not that bothered if a few people manage to cheat on benefits. What does bother me is the huge number of children going hungry, the rise of people struggling on zero-hours contracts, and the rapacious landlords ripping off their tenants (and of course the benefits system).
In 2016/17, the Department for Work and Pensions estimated that £2 billion worth of benefit claims were considered fraudulent. In the same period, HM Revenue and Customs reported that they failed to collect £34 billion of the tax that they were due. So who are the villains here?
25/09/2019 14:55:40 UTC
Pocketpete said :-
I feel I am bothered if someone cheats even a penny in benefits probably as I'm not entitled to any.
I remember a few years back I worked for a transport company who went bust. They made 80 staff redundant. I was told by the liquidator to sign on and I would receive 6 weeks redundancy as I had been there 3 years. Yippe. I duly signed on and received £ 2.40 Dole per 2 weeks. I was entitled to £56.00 per week but they reduced this by a £ 1 for every £ 1 in my pension. The £1.20 was for each child I had under the age of 16.
After 2 weeks the lady in the Dole office screamed and shouted as me as I had only applied for 2 jobs instead of the required 10.
She then proceeded to sanction me as i was such a bad person. And took 1/3 of my benefits off me. Hmm 80p gone.
2 weeks later I saw the same lady who was disgusted with my job seeking efforts and said she was going to stop my benefits entirely. She looked on the computer and saw that I was now receiving £ 1.60 per week. I said take it all as please remember its costing me £ 3.60 to park my car every time I signed on. She looked at me and the penny dropped she didnt take the lot lol. She was clearly embarrassed.
The following week my redundancy cheque arrived and guess what they deducted my dole off the payment. Omg.... I was fuming.
So yes anyone claiming a penny more than they are entitled to should be shot.... but equally we really should help those that need it more than they are getting now. Especially bikers.
25/09/2019 20:29:22 UTC
CrazyFrog said :-
I can agree with both of the previous posts!
Yes, benefit cheats bother me, but so do huge multinationals who cynically avoid paying tax.
Without getting too political (please feel free to remove this should you wish to Mr Ed), I personally think that controlled, restrained and censured capitalism is the least bad system humanity has come up with in 100,000 years of social evolution. The problem is that globalism means its almost impossible to impose those controls, restraints and censured. Sadly, I don't know what the solution is :-(
27/09/2019 10:17:21 UTC
Upt'North said :-
While I have no desire to enter into the debate with regards who should and shouldn't get benefits, I reckon that's down to government policy and implementation which I have no control over other than if I can be ar..d to vote every five years.
But..........don't you think as a whole motorcyclists are the salt of the earth. Yes of course there is criminality within certain elements of motorcycle groups but all in all, I think we're God fearing (not literally), honest, jolly nice folk.
I believe the average Motorcyclist to be fair and hard working people, they wouldn't be thinking of screwing the system. I could be wrong and naive of course.
Upt'North.
27/09/2019 12:02:11 UTC
Upt'North said :-
Pete, pocket varietal, have you gone native yet or are they flying you back.
Upt'North.
27/09/2019 12:04:31 UTC
Pocketpete said :-
Yes still in greece. Should have flown back yesterday. No room on the plane the caa put us up in a nice hotel and provided a lovely meal. They are planning on saturday night but doesnt look good so it looks like sunday now.
Oh dear never mind I can put up with extra days in the sun.
The caa have been brilliant very well organised. Polite patient staff who are really going the extra mile. They are struggling with the short runway and pilots who arnt qualified to land here. They have to be a captain with 15000 hours on the book. Also we came on planes which carried 40 extra passengers. These ones dont so it takes 4 planes to take home 3 planes worth of passengers.
27/09/2019 21:43:34 UTC
Upt'North said :-
PP, if you get the chance of another day take it.
It's raining cats and dogs and elephants and crocodiles, you get the gist.
I posted some pictures recently of last weekends trip to Crovie and the Moray coast, most of it was washed into the sea 24 hours ago. It's not so pretty now.
To keep this on motorcycle territory, sorry Ed, I'm off to collect a new to me low mileage seat for the BeaST today from Peterlee. I'm thinking of adding some gel pads and figure a lightly used seat is a good starting point. All I've got to do now is avoid the falling animals.
Stay until Spring 2020 PP.
I hate rain.
Upt'North.
29/09/2019 09:04:20 UTC
Name
Comment
Add a RELEVANT link (not required)
Upload an image (not required) -
Uploading...
Home
Guest Posts