Had a bit of a scare at the end of last month, one of my friends Mick had told me that he banged his head the night before. When I saw him the following day and spoke to him I didn’t really didn’t think that he was looking that good but didn’t think too much about it. On the evening of the same day, I sent Mick a text to see if he was ok but I never got a response back, which was nothing unusual! When I never saw him the following lunchtime, we always go for a drink at lunchtimes since I seem to have become semi retired! I decided to go round his house. When I got there I was immediately worried as his car was on the drive, but maybe he was out walking Putney his dog. I rang the doorbell and knocked on the door but never got any response, I started to walk around the house and look through the windows, when I came to his bedroom window I saw him lying on his bed. Knocking on the window, initially I never got any response but eventually he heard me, he looked at me, got up and came to the window but didn’t acknowledge me and appeared to not even see me and just went and lied down again, this happened a couple times. Getting really worried now I decided to call an ambulance. Whilst I was waiting for the ambulance I looked for a way in but couldn’t find one. The ambulance arrived pretty quickly and I explained the situation to them, they got the same response as I did when knocking on the window. Fearing for Mick’s well-being they decided to break the door down. Well, doors certainly aren’t as easy to break down as they make it look on the telly, the smaller of the paramedics had a go first, he stepped back a bit from the door then charged at it with his shoulder but just bounced off! The second paramedic decided to have a go, he was of a much bigger build but he too just bounced off, he looked pretty miffed that the door didn’t give way and I was a bit surprised myself, there was a lot of weight behind him! He then proceeded to kick the door and after several kicks, you could hear the door starting to give way, spurred on by this he kicked it with more vigour until the door finally relented and we were able to get in. The paramedics immediately attended to Mick while I looked after Putney Mick’s dog. Putney who’s such a friendly dog just wanted to say hello to the medics. On examination of Mick, they were undecided as to what was wrong with him so they decided that he needed to go to the hospital and put him in the ambulance, leaving me to shore the door up and sort out Putney.
After securing the house and getting Putney to another friend to look after I went to the hospital to see Mick.
Mick was in for nearly a week at first they thought he had an infection or maybe pneumonia they seemed to forget his bash on the head and kept looking for something else! Eventually, they gave him a scan and found a small bleed on the brain which they said would heal itself.
Now at the end of the month, Mick seems to be a lot better and is back to his normal self.
Apart from the mishap to Mick the month got off to a good start, I had my back operated on and was able to walk pain-free and up-right more or less as soon as I woke up. The surgeon said that the operation went well and that I should more or less make a full recovery. He did say that my leg might still be numb as he thought that there might be some nerve damage, he said the feeling could come back straight away, it could take a few weeks or it may never come back! Think he covered all options there then! My leg is still numb and the feeling hasn’t come back, but maybe it will at some point, can’t help wondering that if I’d have got seen a lot quicker then maybe I wouldn’t have got nerve damage!
After one night in the hospital, they discharged me, (they don’t keep you in longer than they have to these days) with strict instructions that I wasn’t allowed to drive, work, cycle or sit or rather not sit for more than fifteen minutes at a time and not too often either! The only thing I was allowed to do was walk or lie down, so that’s what I done, went for walks! The first couple of days I only walked down to the seafront and back which is a round journey of about 1.6 miles, conveniently that went past the pub so I was able to stop for a break halfway! After a few days of just walking to the beach and back I decided to up my distance a bit and started to walk into town, a round trip of about 4 miles, that might have been a bit too far too soon as the next day I was in a fair amount of pain, but I still managed to go out for a walk. No pain no gain I say! I’ve continued walking every day and walk at least 6 miles a day, even though I find walking quite hard and I’m finding it increasingly frustrating as to why I seem to struggle so much.
I did get told off when I went to my first physio session, I’d been given some exercises to do when I was discharged from hospital which I was being good and doing 2 or 3 times a day, the only problem was that I was doing them a bit too vigorously and got told it’s not a workout it’s just meant to be light exercise!
Had another little scare at the end of the month as they thought that I might have a blood clot in my leg so they sent me to the hospital for tests, luckily the tests came back negative and I was given the all clear. Whilst I was waiting around the hospital to see a doctor I got chatting to this old lady, Margaret Ellis who was a real old character, she was telling me that she used to be in the diplomatic service and that she was based in the old Yugoslavia and Athens which is where my last cycle tour was, so I think we both found it interesting to talk about how it was and how it is now. She said that when she was there she used to party nearly every night and that she would quite often attend parties that were held by Tito the President of Yugoslavia, I said maybe she partied a little too hard and that maybe that’s why she was in hospital, not that I knew what was wrong with her though. She just said that she had the time of her life and didn’t regret a thing, good for her I say!
