Podge saw his GP on Friday (23/01) as part of his long term care plan. At the end of the review she said all looked good but did say that he should try to keep more active. So with that in mind, on the Saturday he decided he really needed to get the garage tidied so that he could get both bike and treadmill operational. Part of this involved upturning a garden chair and putting it up, leaning over his bike to do it, onto a storage box. Naturally, Podge being Podge, he lost his balance, totally, and fell straight to the floor (even his head bounced though that part seemed ok) and ended up trapped under the chair & bike. He couldn’t move: He tried waving to Tubbs who was in the kitchen who thought he was just waving at her so she waved back while turning up the music to listen to one her favourite songs: Then she realised he was actually waving from help. She came out to find him in a mess on the floor and had to, and managed to, free him and help him to his feet and back indoors and onto a kitchen chair.
The pain was quite bad so he took Ibuprofen and Codeine which made him drowsy, that was good, and so he called it a day and went to bed. The next day, Podge peed blood but this, he vaguely remembered was possibly due to Ibuprofen reacting with his blood thinners.
So, Podge just rested taking Paracetamol but the pain wasn’t going away and both Podge and Tubbs started to worry that Podge had broken something so, come Monday they dialled 111. The initial contact said that they would get a clinician to call him back within 60 minutes, failing that, they would send an ambulance. This upset Poor Podge – Podge doesn’t like ambulances. Eventually somebody did call back though he didn’t really seem to know what was going on or even what day it was, then his computer ‘crashed’. He told Podge to go straight to A&E and he would send ‘a letter’.
Podge reached A&E at 12:00 (ahead of ‘the letter’). There, he was examined, prodded, pulled, pushed made to stand then sit: They agreed that it was obvious he was in great pain so gave him morphine type painkillers (twice): They took an ECG (A-Fib confirmed) and took lots of blood while putting in a cannula as he was going to need a CT Scan. While inserting the Cannula, the doctor forgot to stop the valve or whatever it was and Podge’s blood went all over his trouser and over the floor – Poor Podge.
After a while, Podge and Tubbs were summoned to the CT Scanning department (they offered to wheel him round but felt he needed to stretch his legs so they walked V V slowly).
Inserting Poor Podge into the scanning machine was extremely painful and took three nurses to get him to lie down in the right position and then, off went the machine, whirring away up and down his torso and then, it was all done. Podge and Tubbs were then sent back to A&E Department to await the results of his blood tests and the scan.
Eventually, at 21:00 they, the doctors, happily reported that no bones or organs ‘seem to be’ damaged but they remained aware of how much pain he was in (even Patients waiting to be seen frequently helped Podge stand up each time he was called and for that he was very appreciative and, Tubbs was even getting on well with another patient who was showing her photos of his last diving holiday in the Red Sea!). The doctor provided two options for the next phase: Option 1 – stay in Hospital for pain management; Option 2 – go home with lost of strong painkillers. Podge decided that breakfast back home would be much nice so went for option 2. So they gave him a box of strong prescription strength paracetamol and Codeine and home he went.
And that’s where Podge, and Tubbs, are today though the pain is now greater probably caused by the poking and prodding and the the stress and strain of trying to breath and use his inhalers. The doctor did say however that it could take anything from 2 to 6 weeks: Still, it’s only pain so mustn’t grumble though that bit is very difficult.
Poor Podge
As a postscript Podge and Tubbs cannot fault any of the nursing staff and doctors at Swindon A&E. They were marvellous.
The Adventures of Podge & Tubbs 