This is a walk I have done about 1000 times, without incident, over the five years we have been back in Wellington. The walk I do can be between 3-5 km.
On the return part of the trip I slipped, there was an ominous cracking sound from my right leg and there I was (me and the dog) stranded on the top of the walkway with the southerly front getting colder and stronger laced with rain squalls. Despite being dressed for the weather I was feeling cold in short time.
Fortunately, as I always do, I carried a cellphone. I rang my wife who in turn rang 111 and within minutes the ambulance people were in contact with me. They could not bring in the chopper because of wind conditions, so opted to send their 4WD rescue vehicle. Right through this period, they kept me on the cellphone talking. I was in no pain but the cold was getting to me. Meanwhile, my eldest son and grandson had found me and brought extra jackets. My grandson went off to direct the rescue vehicle to where I had slipped. Unfortunately, the rescue vehicle got stuck on the track and they called for a backup vehicle.
I was eventually transported to the hospital two and a half hours after the event. All due credit to the paramedic team despite their vehicle problems.
There are important issues here:
- always carry your cell phone in such conditions
- make sure it is fully charged at all times
- if prepay make sure you have sufficient funds on the phone
- have at least one ICE (in case of emergency) number programmed into the phone (see http://bit.ly/androidphoneice) that can be used to quickly call relatives
- wear suitable footwear (which my son and grandson said I was not!)
The next problem was Jake the dog. He had to be virtually dragged home by my grandson as he refused to leave a scene of such great interest.
One other piece of advice if you are going to have an accident. Try and avoid a weekend, as the hospital is crowded with sports injuries. This was also a period with large numbers of potential swine flu victims turning up, despite contrary advice.
All due credit to the overworked accident and emergency staff. I was attended to relatively quickly, at about 6 pm, with painkillers and gross manipulation of the broken leg. It is interesting to note that through this whole event I have had little pain and there is no sign of nerve damage. Due to overcrowding the Wellington Hospital finally found me a bed at 3 am on Monday morning.
I was sent for surgery at 9 pm on Monday night and returned to the ward after 6 hours of surgery. The injuries included a fractured tibia (long lower leg bone) and fibula, a fractured ankle, and an upper tibia splintering induced during the surgery. I am now the proud permanent owner of a screwed (literally) ankle, pinned, wired and screwed tibia accompanied by 47 titanium wound clips that snaked down from knee to ankle and round about!
Instead of plaster, I have a ROM brace (simply a removable padded brace supported by metal bars with an knee-locking device that can be altered to suit the changing flexing required as the leg gets stronger).
One potential complication of such surgery is deep vein thrombosis (DVT). I have ended up with lung DVT clots and have daily heparin injections and warfarin pills (rat poison to you) to combat that problem.
I am at home now, after two weeks in hospital, and scooting around on a Zimmer frame. I have not put weight on the leg for about 12 weeks. However, as noted earlier I have very little pain.
The one person who now takes all the strain is my wife. She was my nurse when I was in veterinary practice and notes that I am just another animal to be treated. She is doing a great job.
In summary, I must thank all those involved in this exercise.
The sequel of course is Jake the dog.
The biggest issue at the moment is that the dog has switched allegiance!
He had hung around the front door for several days moping, and got annoyed with Judith when she pulled the drapes and he could not see if my car was coming down the road.
However, once she changed him to new biscuits and dog roll, I was forgotten!
It will be a long slow process winning him back over. (Sadly, my beloved companion Jake developed lymphoma on Xmas December 2012 and was put to sleep. He had reached the ripe old age of 14 years.)
Follow up - the majority of the hardware in my leg (pins, screws, plates and wires was removed in November 2010 - see below.
Unfortunately, two wire bands on the split bone (tibia) had to remain as they were difficult to remove. In July 2013 they caused mobility and flexion problems and were chiseled out in September 2013 - see below
I am now OK thanks to some excellent surgery.
PS One other thing learnt from this exercise was how to handle the 357 emails received when I had no Internet access. Don't - don't download them. Go into your webmail and delete those that are not important.
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