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Part one dealt with the fall and getting to the hospital. This is about what happened next. Some of this won’t be covered in full, as it didn’t become obvious until 10 days later. Again, not for the faint-hearted.
As mentioned in the previous post, I was assessed in the ambulance by a nurse/HA who changed the dressing and checked to see if I was ‘fit to sit’. I was desperate to get done and go home so I would’ve agreed that my leg hanging off was only a flesh wound at this point. Lewis loves to regale people with the tale of me screeching “Don’t leave my dogs!” as I was taken to the ambulance. I’m pretty sure that’s not what actually happened.
As I recall they directed Lewis to follow the ambulance in the car, but I said no because I didn’t want him to either leave the dogs unattended for what could be hours, or be stuck in the car outside the hospital for the same amount of time with all 3 dogs. I told him I would phone when I was ready to be picked up. I didn’t realise just how fucking big the car park is at Carlisle Hospital. Or that it would be 8hrs post-staircase hilarity before I would be ready to leave.
I distinctly remember Sheila telling the nurse/HA in the ambulance all the details, including that I had a large contusion as well as the huge laceration to my scalp. This will become important later. I’ll get there, don’t worry.
After being triaged I was whooshed through to a treatment room. I suspect they realised it was a bit worse than expected and that I shouldn’t really wait any longer given my injury was 5hrs old by that point. Honestly, I couldn’t feel a bloody thing anyway. My head was numb. I was more frightened of the inevitable stitching/stapling than anything else as I’ve been there before and the local anasthetic injection hurts a shit-tonne more than the injury. Then there’s all that tugging. Yeuch.
The doctor, Taz, wanted to get me to x-ray but I asked if there was a way we could decide if it was necessary so I could skip that bit. Again, I’ve been here before and the last time I did have a head x-ray it took bloody ages to get seen and sent on to be closed up. I wanted to go home, I was worried about the dogs and I didn’t feel concussed.
The dogs, naturally, didn’t give a shit.
Taz did a bunch of cognitive and physical reactions e.g. push and pull, follow the finger etc. He admitted there was a good chance I hadn’t cracked my skull so agreed to close me up and I could go home after.
I’m not sure giving me control of the gas and air was a smart move, but it certainly helped me. I was completely off my tits while he was closing the wound. They had to stop half way through and clear a blood clot, which was fun.. The end result was 6 stitches and 21 staples (we found out later it was actually 26 staples but some had wandered off around my head). My head had pretty much split like a melon. It started just in from my right temple and up my forehead, across my head diagonally and finished up just above and behind my left ear.
Brooke asked me if she could take some photos to show the other staff as “I’ve been here 3 years and this is the worst head injury I’ve seen where someone is still conscious”. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I had no idea what it looked like so she offered to use my phone to take a couple of photos. I resisted at first but then caved. She took one before they closed me up, and one after. Photos below. Again, I must warn, they are pretty graphic. So caution advised. Quite honestly, I’ve seen these photos more than a few times and they still make me feel pretty grim.
Before Taz started with the stitching/stapling. Also before I got my hands on the gas and air. I was bloody freezing, probably shock.
After. Taz did a great job, the stitched part is still quite visible but I’ve seen much worse stitching scars. The rest of it not so much, but at least I still have some hair.
This was 3 days later. I was not in a good place at this point. I had pain and stiffness in my back, neck, legs. Also just for fun, both my lower legs had edema which ulcerated briefly. That was probably one of the scarier parts.
It took about 2hrs I guess, from start to finish. I then had to go down and get some meds from the pharmacy and go and find Lewis. I got lost trying to find my way around and ended up walking all the way from the back of the hospital to the main entrance. Again, getting stared at the whole way as my head wasn’t dressed. I was told we needed to keep it open to the air, so that’s what we did.
For the curious who can’t face the photos I did a sketch showing both states and what it looked like 2 weeks later. There is more in the telling here. As you can see there was something unfortunate lurking under my hair. I’ll cover that in another post.
I think we got home around 5pm. I was exhausted but I was told not to sleep until my normal time to make sure I wasn’t concussed.
That’s enough for this bit. I have more, quite a bit more. But that’s for another post. Maybe a couple. Not sure.
