Broken

Help was soon on hand as many of my fiends came to see what all my swearing was about. After all the pain subsided a little I got some help from a couple of friends, got up onto my left leg and began to assess the damage. There was no way I could put weight onto my right leg. I managed to hobble my way round to the passenger seat of Chris' car and get in. I was lucky that Chris had offered to give me a lift for the weekend.

It had only been a silly stumble. Surely this couldn't be all that serious???

My ideas ranged from pretending that nothing much had happened, and that I would be alright in the morning, to realising that I had fractured my hip and should go to hospital as soon as I got to Manchester. 

As we got closer to home I called my neighbour Lindsey who is a paramedic and was off-duty that day. She asked all about my injury and offered to take me to A&E. I managed to hop / hobble into Lindsey's car then off we went to hospital. Once there I managed to transfer to a wheelchair without too much trouble. Before too long I got through triage and again managed to transfer from the wheelchair to a bed without too much pain or difficulty. This led to the idea that my injury might not be too bad after all.

The radiographer's expression changed once she saw the images. I asked, "Is there anything you can tell me?" In a lowered tone, she muttered, "Don't move! It is broken."

The Doctor looked at the x-ray and began to explain... I'd didn't understand his words so I interjected and in a hopeful manner suggested, "Okay, so can I go home now?" The doctor replied, "err... no!" Before I could express my disappointment he explained that I would be immediately admitted for an operation to pin the fracture in the morning.

My horror was somewhat subdued by the generous dosage of painkillers. On the on hand I felt comforted by the professionalism of the hospital staff, and on the other I was terrified at the prospect of major surgery. I had never spent the night in hospital before.

The next morning the operation went really well. For me it was just like switching the light off for a couple of hours. To my surprise I was able to get out of bed the very next day and use a Zimmer frame to get around. 

One day later I could use crutches, then after four days in hospital I was released back into society just before the UK went into the first of the coronavirus lockdowns.