Let the healing begin

Am I adjusting to being back at home? Not sure really?  

I don't spend much time at home usually as I am always out working, exercising or socialising! Daytime TV leaves a lot to be desired so I am trying to build up some recordings of decent stuff to watch. Lots of things have had to change and thankfully I have a very organised and efficient husband (Andy, note I am praising you!). I have to be up and in the shower by 7.30; I need help getting in and out of the shower, but thankfully can dry myself and get dressed.  However getting my knickers & trackies on requires me hooking them over my club foot, pulling them up to my thighs, then rolling backwards in a gambol to get them over my bum.  I make sure everyone has left the room at this point, probably not a nice sight! I have taken to coming downstairs on my bum now as the stairs are the hardest obstacle in the house. Andy then makes breakfast and a packed lunch for me and I am usually ready and sat on the sofa in my corner position by 8.30am!  I can’t risk showering or navigating the stairs when everyone is out at the moment so it’s a case of having to be up & ready early.  I also have to make sure I drink lots of water as that makes me get up hourly for the toilet as my bum gets sore sitting all day, I can only imagine how painful bedsores must be!  Andy came in with some Jif Lemon wipes the other day and said he wanted to wipe my crutch!!  Thank god he meant my walking aid! I had moaned that it smelt plasticky! There are many things I have had to laugh at this week, such as the shoes lined up in the hall the other day, along with my “shoe” for my right foot.

Guess which one is mine?

Shortly after I arrived at Plymouth hospital last week, I realised I ought to tell my parents I had injured myself as they were in Australia at the time.  They were visiting my sister and family as it was the 1^st birthday of my niece Ruby and they were having a naming ceremony on Bondi Beach on Sunday 22^nd April.  However I decided not to tell them until after the naming ceremony as I didn’t want them to be worrying about me, so decided to text them later on Sunday.  I woke up Sunday morning in hospital and turned my mobile on to read the following message:

I think I must have read it 3 or 4 times before I realised I wasn’t dreaming, you can see the start of my reply below it.  What are the chances of that? Mother & daughter breaking an ankle on the opposite side of the world, 12 hours apart! Mine is my left and Mum’s is her right.  Mum had a double fracture, she hasn’t yet had surgery and may not need it, her foot is in a boot cast.  They had to arrange their repatriation back to Portugal through insurance as the consultant had insisted her leg be elevated for the whole flight, so it had to be business class.  I said to Mum it’s a very dramatic way to get an upgrade!  They also had accommodation paid for as my sister lives in a 3 storey town house in Sydney so mum didn’t have easy access to the bathroom and sleeping on the sofa was not ideal.  Mum & Dad are now back home in Portugal where she will get another X-ray to see if they recommend surgery to insert plates & pins in her ankle too! Can you imagine if we fly together, we will both set off the alarms as we go through security at the airport with our bionic legs!  Get welll soon Mum, love you lots.  Everyone has laughed at me including the paramedics & nurses when I have told them I have a metal allergy.  I am allergic to cheap metal jewellery (nickel) which gives me a nasty rash, so I thought I had best mention it as I was having metal inserted into my leg for the rest of my life!! Well it paid off as I have titanium plates, worth top dollar on eBay apparently, no bog standard NHS rubbish for me ha! I thought I might as well tell the surgeon I was allergic to cats, dogs & horses too but he assured me there were none in theatre that day.


red circles show area of break, obviously have to be an expert
as I wouldn't have spotted it!

The kids have slowly adjusted to me changing from “busy working mum” to “mum on the sofa”.  They have been really good and have helped Andy around the house with not too much nagging, Joseph has vacuumed and helped tidy up and Georgia has kept her room tidy and put plates and dishes away, after her obligatory reply of “hang on a sec”!  I was hoping the novelty of using my crutches might have worn off with Georgia by now as she uses them and then leaves them in another room! I shouldn't moan, as they are always there to give me a hug if I get tearful, which I do frequently!  Georgia makes me stand up for a hug though as she says its not the same when I am sat down ;-)

One of my hourly walkabouts

I have had lots of lovely visitors since arriving home last Wednesday and a great variety of gifts, I am not being inundated with grapes which is good.   My lounge looks like a florists, I have fruit platters, jaffa cakes, scented shower gel & bubble bath, magazines & a lovely M&S pamper hamper from the girls at work.  We have had dinner cooked and delivered by friends, lunch bought in for me and continuous offers to get things in town.  I am overwhelmed by the kindness of people, not that I had any doubt but I have a great bunch of friends and family around to help out.   It really breaks up the time when I have visitors and is the highlight of my day.  I am having to write down my visit schedule though as I am still a bit “away with the fairies” otherwise I forget who is coming and when.  We went out to the local pub with friends for Sunday roast this week and I was taken to Nero by friends on Monday, it’s nice to breathe fresh air and it makes you realise how much we take normal activities for granted!  I bumped into Rachel from Regency Runners at Nero who assured me I would be back running in no time, I can’t see it myself at the moment but it’s a goal to aim for!


My escape to Nero with Cheryl and 2 of my fellow
walkers Michelle & Paula

My leg is less swollen now and I can see the muscle in my thigh and calf shrinking already from lack of exercise and general usage.  The best position is still to have it elevated on pillows day and night, otherwise as soon as I stand up or put my leg down the blood flows to my foot and it feels like its going to explode out of the cast. I am not in constant pain, I just get a bit of discomfort around the wound and a bit of aching from time to time.  However if I try to do more my ankle makes sure I pay for it, for example not having it elevated for an hour or so one day made it so painful that night I barely slept.  My next appointment at the fracture clinic is Mon 14 May, when they will x-ray to make sure the broken bones are setting straight and I will hopefully get a new lighter weight cast, so I might get to see the wound then!   I am still on daily pain relief, I tried to wean myself onto Paracetamol for a few days but have gone back onto Cocodamol until the pain calms down again. The healing process relies on good nutrition and a few good quality supplements to help you along the way, so my friend Sarah has sent me some useful links to information for certain types of Vitamin E, Calcium Citrate and Magnesium Malate.  These along with a healthy diet should help the bones, muscles, tendons and skin heal quickly.

nice bruising post surgery with surgeons fingerprints top of pic

Our holiday to Florida on 1^st June with the Fitzmaurices has now been cancelled by the travel agent.  We have lost 70% of the package holiday cost but got a full refund on the park passes, airport parking/hotel and car hire, apart from small admin fees which we can claim back.  We can claim the 70% loss back on our insurance once we have all the paperwork we need and are currently looking at re -booking for Christmas, which will be something to look forward to. Holiday insurance has saved my family & I over the years many times!!

I have stopped with the “what if’s” now as there are too many, and as my sister said “it is what it is”.  I said to Andy I wished I had taken the time to look for my walking sticks which I have taken on every mountain walk we have done previously. Maybe they might have saved me falling, which they have done many times when its slippery or uneven under foot. His reply to that was “If my aunt had bollocks she’d be my uncle”. So, no more what if's!

Just a ramble

I was trying to think back to where all this walking malarkey had started?

We first discussed this particular trip to Cornwall with our friends in September last year, when we had just done our 3rd mountain climb up Snowdon as a group. Over the last few years we have climbed Ben Nevis (with a metre of snow on top), Scafell Pike (in a snow blizzard) and most recently Snowdon (torrential rain & gale force winds). I had climbed Ben Nevis previously with a group of girlfriends for a charity event to raise money for Breast Cancer Care, as a friend of mine had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and after her treatment had suggested doing this mountain climb, during which our group raised over £10,000 between us. So that's where the walking all began and I purchased a pair of good quality walking boots, which I will come back to later.

Michelle & Stuarts house in Bude

part of the coastal path, a dry bit!

Our trip to Cornwall was planned as our friends Michelle & Stuart have a house in Bude, so we arranged to walk a 10 mile stretch of the coast heading south from Bude to a pub at Cracklington Haven. Andy had not come to Cornwall as our son Joseph had reached the final in his football team, so it was a really important match, but I had decided to go to Cornwall with the rest of the group as I had been looking forward to it.  On Friday night we had a few ciders at the local Pub, but were home and in bed by midnight as Stuart had categorically said "breakfast at 8, walking at 9" so everyone was up and ready to leave on time. After picking up some sandwiches in Bude we set off on our leisurely coastal walk. We passed Widemouth Bay where we walked along the beach and Paula and I admired the view of some topless male surfers.   The walk was a lot hillier than I had imagined so I was pleased that my fitness level is currently good from all my running.  Some of the hills we climbed were pretty steep, amongst the steepest in Britain at 35% incline I have since found out!  Some of the coastal path follows the road which saves you walking on cliff edges or along too many beaches. We had a lovely lunch stop in the sunshine by a stream and then set off up a steep hill, we were past the half way point and listened to Tony & Stuart tell us how hard the hills had been on their bike ride the previous day, Tony even showed us where he had been sick on a previous ride due to physical exertion at the top of a steep hill, I think he even got down on his knees and demonstrated the position, those of you that know Tony wont be surprised by that at all!

Girls at start of walk

Protecting my assets (ask the lads why!)

Lunch stop at midday

35% incline hills

Tony locating his puking up point

We passed a lovely house on the clifftop which had lovely views and a white wooden picnic bench in the garden. We stopped here to re-group and chatted about what quenched our thirst the most, I had got my heart set on a Berry Rattler cider and a cream tea at our final destination!  The map below shows this clifftop house as Cancleave Holiday Cottage.  Once everyone was walking together again we headed across a field where we could see the path disappeared into some woods, Dizzard Woods, a National Trust property.  We started down a narrow uneven path with a lot of wet mud. Ahead of me were Jason, Tracey & Stuart and immediately behind me was Michelle, who was the only eye witness to my clumsy fall! Paula and Tony were out of sight behind us.  I had commented to Michelle & Tracey how slippy it was and said to take it easy, I was trying to walk on the outside of the dip in the path when my right leg slipped first, I tried to correct myself and then slipped on my left leg which took all my weight. My foot went under me, I heard a double crack and fell onto my side. Tony said he heard me scream the first time and thought maybe I had got mud on my boots, if only, and then he heard the second scream and realised I had seriously hurt myself. I could see immediately see that my ankle was facing inwards/downwards at a funny angle and said immediately I thought I had broken it.  Slight panic set in amongst everyone at that point as we realised nobody had got a signal on their phones! Hindsight is a wonderful thing as we now realise you can often make emergency calls on phones without a signal as it will pick up any available network! A kind walker who passed us, said he would call for an ambulance as soon as he picked up a signal, he then came back to tell us the air ambulance was on its way. My initial comments were "how embarrassing" followed by "what if its just twisted and a helicopter is on its way!!!" The lads who had ran back up to the field had also managed to make a call for an ambulance, we said that we hoped two wouldn't arrive! The paramedics came by car in no time at all considering we were quite remote, they had gas and air with them which I got straight on to.  By this point I was feeling a little faint, the pain was coming in waves and I kept telling the girls it was like child birth.  Paula said the colour had drained from my face by this point.  The gas and air gave immediate relief and I was as high as a kite, my voice sounded funny and I was cracking jokes keeping everyone entertained apparently!  They kept asking me on a scale of 1-10 where my pain was, and I mostly said 7, so after failing to be able to get a morphine line into my hand they kept me on gas and air.  The paramedics got me onto my back and removed my walking boot.  My friends had been told to keep my boot on until someone arrived and it had definitely kept the ankle in one place and kept swelling down as it was done up fairly tight.  All I could see was a massive lump sticking up and my foot facing inwards, the lump was were the Talus bone had become dislocated from underneath the Tibia.  We heard the air ambulance landing in the field and the air paramedics soon arrived at our location, they decided that they needed to call the coastguard to come with a 4x4 to get me to the helicopter as it was at the top of the field.  I was then moved up to the field by stretcher, and then put in a 4x4 to take me to the helicopter.  I wish I had asked for some photographs to be taken at this time as apparently their were approximately 15 people on the scene by this point!! Its not until afterwards you realise the scale of things you realise you would like to see what was going on around you.  I was still feeling very embarassed by this point, but was also very tearful as I now realised I had properly injured myself and would have to go to hospital for a plaster cast.  I thought I might make it back to Bude that evening  to join the guys for a meal, this wasnt to be the case though!  I also knew Andy would be trying to ring me to let me know the football result and might well be cursing me if he couldnt get in touch with me, so had asked Jason to ring him to say I had twisted my ankle and that I was going to hospital but I was ok, we decided to play it down a little as I was 200 miles from home! Everyone I was with that day played a really important and supportive role that day, whether it was holding my hand, constantly talking to me, supporting my head & ankle with their coats or just listening to my delirious banter.  The lads were anxiously running up and down the hill to get a signal and then had to stay at the top to wave the helicopter in to the right place.  They have all said they felt helpless at the time,but they all seemed very calm and were absolute saviours on the day, they are all very special friends but they were anyway.  I dont know how I will ever repay them.

Yellow indicates path we had taken, red dot is where I fell
and blue dot is where helicopter landed

I was soon in the helicopter with my headset on so the pilot could talk to me, and back on the gas and air.  There was no room for passengers so it was tearful saying goodbye to everyone.  The pilot decided to take off to the left so I could wave at my friends, this was quite funny at the time. I asked them to video me in the helicopter as the kids would love it. I am quite a thrill-seeker so the helicopter ride was quite enjoyable under the circumstances.  I was very high on gas and thought the mouthpiece was a telephone and the dialpad was on my leg so kept trying to phone the pilot! Bizarre behaviour!  The journey to Plymouth hospital was only 8 minutes, this later took the guys well over an hour by car when they came to visit that evening. The coastguards were kind enough to take everyone else back to Bude by car as they didnt really fancy continuing on their walk after everything that had happened. We had walked approximately 7 miles by this point and had about 4 miles to go.  The fall had happened at 1pm and I was in Plymouth for around 2.15pm.  They x-rayed me on the bed straightaway and said it was a multiple fracture and disclocation so I would need to be sedated immediately so they could "pop" the ankle back into position.  This is probably the point where I was the most scared as I was on my own, I was shaking with shock, cold and covered in wet mud. I didnt feel a thing as they put my ankle back into position and they put a cast on it straight away with a gap at the front to allow for swelling.  I was x-rayed again and then moved into a cubicle to await a bed on a ward.  The doctor came to tell me it was a Trimalleolar fracture sometimes referred to as Weber C, and that it was an unstable fracture meaning it wouldnt heal just with a cast so I would need surgery in the next few days to put plates & pins in.  I was sobbing by this point, I couldnt believe that such a simple fall could result in such a nasty injury.  The doctor said my walking boots which were pretty good ones, had isolated the fracture to one area, and if I had been wearing less stable footwear I could have fractured bones in my foot too.   I called Andy at this point to let him know what had happened, forgetting he had been told I had just twisted my ankle, so as I explained I had broken my ankle, that I needed surgery to put plates and pins in and I would be in Plymouth for 3 -4 days until the swelling had gone down, he was stunned to say the least and I could sense his panic and distress at being so far away.  We decided he should travel down the next day as it was 4pm by this point and was a 3hr + journey to Plymouth.  Some of my friends travelled down to Plymouth from Bude that night once I knew I was staying in to bring me some clean clothes. It was very emotional to see them all again but they cheered me up no end, however I can't believe they didnt bring me a cream tea, I still hadnt had one!

My rescue helicopter

My first plaster cast

The next morning the orthopaedic surgeon came to see me and explained about the operation I needed and that it could be up to a week before they could operate due to swelling, so there was an option to transfer to a hospital closer to home and have surgery there.  Andy arrived at around 1.30pm and we had a long emotional hug, he later said he hadnt quite believed it was true until he saw me.  Once I discussed the options with Andy we decided this would be much easier to move closer to home and he was happy to drive me to Warwick on Monday.  It took until 6pm on Monday to get everything arranged, and Plymouth had spoken to Warwick so they knew to expect me that evening.  This didnt go quite to plan, so on arrival at Warwick after a fairly uncomfortable 3 hour journey we were told they werent expecting us and I would have to go through the A&E process!! It was so busy, so even after showing them the letter we had to wait until 1am to get to the ward.  Not happy with this part of the NHS at all.  The staff were rude and not interested when we tried to explain that calls had been made and the Orthapaedic SHO knew I was coming.

cast removed on day 4 and no bruises!

The next morning the orthapaedic surgeon came to see me and removed the front of the temporary cast, I was expecting a black and blue twisted ankle but it was remarkably normal looking apart from looking quite "cankle" shaped! The surgeon asked for some ice to be applied to it and said they would do surgery that day, so I was quite shocked but relieved that it would soon be done and out the way.  I was in theatre for 3 hours and the kids arrived just after I got back to the ward, this was the first time I had seen them since before my fall, so it was a bit of shock for them to see me with a drips attached and looking a bit worse for wear with my leg up on a frame.  They were very brave, and we all had a bit of a cry and a hug.  I had a few visitors that night and the next day in hospital and was then allowed home at 3pm on Wednesday.

Its been a bit surreal since Saturday, it is slowly starting to sink in as the realisation hits me that I have a long period of recovery ahead.  I have 6 weeks in a cast and on crutches and am not allowed to put any weight on my foot at all, then in 6 weeks they will re-assess this and might be able to walk on my toes.  I wont be driving or walking properly for a good few months.  Everything at home is difficult, stairs, showering, getting up and down from sofa or bed!  Those of you that know me, know that I never sit down, I am always on the go either working or doing some form of exercise so this period of adjustment is going to be hard.  I have had lots of visitors at home and everyone cheers me up when they come.  It has been decided that the holiday to Florida with our friends Tracey & Jason can't go ahead in 5 weeks time, so the next thing I need to do is cancel that and start the insurance claim.  We are all gutted as we booked it a year ago and have been really looking forward to it, but putting it all into context, its only a holiday, which we will go on in the future and I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and I am sure that will manifest itself in the future.  This could all have had a much worse outcome and there are many people who are much much worse off than me, so I am still smiling....

I am not sure if I will continue with this blog it depends if people enjoy reading it, so please comment !!