The big reveal - my pic and my NHS story...

This is the first time i've wanted to share this picture with more than my friends and family. People coming to the door for the first time are met with this and as i'm so comfortable in it now I just get on with chatting to them. I can see in some eyes the staring at the chin as that's the part that's so restrictive but after a while it just moulds into me. I am the brace or the brace is me, whichever way i'm thankful for it keeping me upright, possibly so upright that i've added an inch to my height but atleast i'm not lying staring at the ceiling like I did for the first week.

When I look back on that week that is the reason I started this blog, so I could remember and get down the detail of those first few days. My shock at the NHS system and care having heard so much about it from others was only justified by their lack of consistency amongsts nurses plus having known the reputation of the hospital I was in it didn't bode well for what followed. Reading about a colleague on facebook who had complications after a pregnancy I could only sympathise with her husband who watched as the nurses complained about lack of doctors. If they're complaining who are we to have any faith? Unfortunately at the time I was going through the same and from which I learnt to be quick and concise with what I needed to know in the relatively short time they have at the end of your bed.

After my joke of 36 hours in A&E having taken 24 hours to tell me anything but my hand was broken I was asked if there was anything they could do for me (by some top orthapedic consultant who was asked by his junior doctor to explain my injuries as he was so embarrassed he'd gone the fiery colour of his hair). I can only imagine he was as shocked as those surrounding me that i'd walked a mile and even cycled a bit then got in a car to get home to then have 18 broken bones that he warranted bringing his boss along!

Yes I said there is something you can do:

1) You can tell those nurses to stop complaining about their jobs and bitching about how shit it is here 5 foot from my bed like I am a spectator in their front room, otherwise I am going to get out of this bed with a broken back and show them with my unbroke hand what moaning looks like!

2) You can teach them a lesson in non-verbal and verbal body language reading as I have been at the end of my bed with my feet hanging out the end unable to lift myself up, squirming and pulling faces of agony while they watch on.

and

3) I shouldn't be having to ask them when I am due regular pain relief. They should be administering that every 4 hours. I am on morphine when needed however I cannot remember or wish to how long ago I had the other drugs. Oh and while we're at it let's review the best medication I can be on now you know exactly what my diagnosis is.

I knew I could be harsh but obviously 24 hours of frustration coupled with inefficiency plus loosing my fierce independence wasn't going down too well. I could hear D chuckling the way he does when I complain in a restaurant for which i'm really not that picky...honest! It even riles me to tell that story but it's one that has to be told as I want this system to get better and I don't care if all that did was give those particular nurses and doctors a kick up the arse, but they moved like lightning after that and they couldn't have been morattentive. I don't care if they went home slagging me for calling them as atleast it planted a seed for them to do better, it's always given me a kick when someone's called me nonchalant.

So the story will continue but right now as I sit at this computer (I usually write from my phone but wanted to share this picture today) my ribs are burning through my chest.

I hope you take as much inspiration from this picture as others have and as much as this blog seems to be giving.

Enjoy your weekend and be safe. 

Hbombotx