I KNEW I shouldn't have said that....

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They do say "be careful what you wish for." :-)

I was just saying the other day that although I have seen lots of the new hospital, I have never seen the new Accident and Emergency block.

I had a very nice weekend. I worked on Saturday and then went to a (slightly belated) Halloween party in the evening. Then on Sunday I was determined to have a pyjama day - where I didn't get dressed at all but lounged around in my pjs all day. I like it because it felt a bit decadent.:-)

This was all going well until it came to bedtime at 11pm.

Now at the top of my stairs there is a step up to another little landing and the office and another set of stairs on the right - and a step up into my bedroom on the left. So I popped into the office to talk to Nathan who was still working. Then he went downstairs and I stepped down from the office and went to step up to the bedroom. Except I missed the step completely and fell headlong into the room. There is a fireplace just inside with a wall that comes out - and I hit the corner of this wall with my forehead. Rather hard.

I sat there dazed for a couple of minutes looking at my head in the mirror which seemed to be swelling up before my eyes. N came back upstairs and I told him I'd fallen into the wall. He looked at the egg-shaped lump on my head and insisted I got dressed as he was taking me to A&E. He did look a little alarmed!

So I got out of my pyjamas and into some random clothes. N helped me out to the car and we went to A&E! There weren't many people in Reception - and three members of staff on the nice new desk. One took my details and then directed me to sit on the red seats. I sat opposite a very smartly dressed man also with a head injury. He seemed to have a cut over his eye and blood had dripped onto his lovely white shirt. he was dressed in a dinner suit and looked very dapper with the shiniest shoes I've ever seen and a walking cane. Not sure what had happened exactly. he didn't look the fighting type!

Haha - maybe he was wondering the same about me.

Anyway he was called into a Triage nurse's office right away - and then a few minute later emerged and was directed to a different part of the waiting room.

I was then called in.

I thought she would stick a plaster on me and send me home but after hearing what had happened she went off, got a neck brace then lay me down on a bed and but some blocks round my head and secured me to the bed! I couldn't move.

She said she was worried about me having broken a vertebra, from whiplash due to the impact of wall.

I wasn't really expecting that! Next a porter was summoned to whisk me off to the "Ambulance arrival bay" as they were full everywhere else. I lay there for a little while, then was quickly moved to Bay B - like a small ward with cubicles. We had a bit of a wait there - and could hear lots of activity around - but I couldn't see anything except the ceiling!

Around 2am a nice young Irish doctor called Dr Eakins came to see me. He carefully undid my brace and blocks and had a feel of my neck and spine. he tested my reflexes and said that as it was painful at the back of my neck then I would need to be x-rayed before they could let me go home.



Just back from the hospital

So I was wheeled to another area to wait for the x-ray. Had a chat to a lady in the next cubicle who was waiting for her friend to come back from x-ray. he had fallen and head-butted a table. He returned with no broken bones but needed to go and get stitches.

Then it was my turn. I was taken into a huge room and a nice nurse put x-ray plates under my bed and I was x-rayed from above and from the side. It didn't take long. Then I went back to  Bay B to await my fate.



After a while Dr Eakins returned and said that  there was nothing broken - which was a great relief!
I was allowed up off the bed and he gave N a list of symptoms to look out for - he was to bring me straight back if I developed any over the couple of days. They included blurred vision, pins and needles, sickness, headaches, any excessive drowsiness..

By the time we got home it was 3.30am and I was starving! After a quick snack we went to bed.

24 hours later - a nice black eye!

Thank-you fate for arranging that for me!! Hmmm I was just saying the other day that I have never won millions on the lottery....