• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

When day-to-day life changes in an instant

Dr.Al

Dr.Al

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Location
Dursley, Gloucestershire
Name
Al
I haven't been on the forum (or in the workshop) for a little while as life has taken a bit of a sideways turn. It's amazing how things can turn on their head in moments.

A shade under two weeks ago, my other half was in a bad car accident (she can't remember what happened but the end result was her Mini hitting a tree - she's a very careful, and IAM qualified, driver so it's not something I would ever expect). She spent a week and a half in Southmead Hospital intensive care, interspersed with three major operations (the longest being 10 hours in surgery). She was finally transferred to a trauma & orthopaedics ward a couple of days ago. She's likely to be in hospital for several more weeks and will have physiotherapy for much longer than that, but the important thing is that she's out of the proverbial woods now.

To say that the last fortnight has been fraught would be a gross understatement! I'm sure it won't surprise anyone that I've spent most of the last fortnight sitting by her bedside in the hospital.

I have to say that I am in awe of how the NHS has handled everything, with countless doctors, surgeons and nurses involved in her case but somehow managing to coordinate their efforts seamlessly. Also the other emergency services, including the fire brigade (who got her out of the car), the air ambulance (who flew her to Southmead Hospital) & the police (who took me to Southmead in a panda car with blue lights). The NHS & other services sometimes get a bad wrap when it comes to waiting times for the important but arguably not urgent stuff, but when the brown stuff hits the fan they are mind-blowingly efficient.
 
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What a horrific thing to happen! So easy to imagine my family in that situation as it could happen to anyone. Hope recovery keeps going well. Will be thinking of you.
 
Gosh that must have been a terible time for you and your other half, I am glad she is on the mend.
I hope she has a a speedy and full recovery.

Give her a hug from me, and one for your self.

Pete
 
Same situation happened to my daughter 7 years ago, just as you describe. I know how you feel and what you're going through. If there's anything you need, just ask.
 
So sorry to hear that @Dr.Al 😟
All the best with her recovery, I hope its really speedy.
Please look after yourself too, the trauma of these types of event can't be underestimated and often hit home at a random time further down the line. Please drop me a message if you want someone detached from the situation to chat to at any point, I'm very happy to sit and listen, as I'm sure are many of the other members here.
 
I am so sorry to hear that - very possible that my wife (trauma consultant / hand & plastic surgeon at Southmead) may have been involved - I am in awe at what she tells me that they do in hospital day in / day out - there are huge issues with the NHS undoubtedly, but it is still a fantastic service.

I am only 5-10 minutes from Southmead if you need anywhere to come and have a coffee at any point...

Hope she recovers quickly and well - and that you do as well - it can be traumatic for those who look on with a feeling of no control while their loved ones are unwell...
 
I'm so sorry to hear that Al, it's a long road back for both of you but there's light at the end of the tunnel my best wishes to you both.

Our daughter had a similar accident more than 20 years ago when ironically on her way home from working a late shift on A&E and she ended up back as a patient an hour later. Very traumatic for a while but she's come through it as will you and your partner.
 
I can't add much to the above except to say I'll be praying for you both.
My own experience of Southmead (as a regular outpatient for various reasons) is that they're pretty amazing, and my own better half did locums in the old A&E there many, many years ago, and there was a good esprit de corps amongst the staff -- it sounds like that continues.

Wishing you both the very best, E.

PS: They also saved my leg, probably from sepsis, about four years ago, for which I am most grateful.
 
Wow! Really, really sorry to hear that Dr.Al. I also agree entirely about the way the NHS (and other services) operate when everything appears to go TU. Glad to hear she's out of the woods - Rob
 
Dr.Al said:
I have to say that I am in awe of how the NHS has handled everything...... managing to coordinate their efforts seamlessly. ...... The NHS & other services sometimes get a bad wrap when it comes to waiting times for the important but arguably not urgent stuff, but when the brown stuff hits the fan they are mind-blowingly efficient.
Click to expand...
My thoughts go to you both.

I fully concur with you re co-ordination and crisis management; like several others above, I have - of necessity - spent some time witnessing multiple individuals caring for my wife. When they said something was going to happen, it did, and they ensured it did.
 
That's awful, Al, and I'm so sorry to hear the news........ but I'm glad she's starting on the road to recovery.

Best wishes to both of you. And yes, the NHS is great once you get into the system. It's getting in that is the issue.
 
+1 to all the above. It's my local hospital too and I've seen it being amazing in many ways over the decades. Hope Carolyn makes a full and speedy recovery.
 
Been travelling all day so only just caught up with this shocking news.
Thinking of you both. Your planned holiday which I know you were looking forward too seems unlikely for some time to come.
I hope you will be able to rearrange some time. You will be welcome anytime.
Take care.
 
Hoping the long road to recovery is shorter than anticipated.
Best wishes to the both of you.
Cheers, Andy
 
There's been an amazing amount of progress over the last two weeks. A week or so ago Carolyn had a total of 23 different connections of various sorts (including cannulas, drains, sensors, oxygen etc). They're all gone now and yesterday (two weeks to the day from the accident) was a big step both figuratively and literally as she took her first few steps with the aid of two crutches (one conventional and one "gutter crutch" as she can't put weight on her left hand). It's going to be a long time before she's back to normal, but to have come that far so fast is mind blowing. Southmead Hospital really have done her proud.

She's being "repatriated" (transferred) to Gloucester Royal this afternoon, which probably won't be as nice an environment as Southmead (Gloucester Royal is a much older building), but I'm hoping it's a relatively brief stay and she'll be transferred again soon, either to home or to the recently-built "Vale" community hospital (I'm assuming they named it that because it's in a valley, not because of its meaning in Latin :)), which is only a few minutes from home.
 
That’s great news Al.
We hope that she continues to make progress, and be patient with her recovery. Important not to rush things.
 
Best wishes to you both and good to hear she is starting her recovery.

An example of how things can change in an instant:
My BIL was cutting his hedge while on a short step ladder and fell off. He broke 11 ribs on one side two of them twice giving him a flail chest which can be fatal. The local A&E stabilised him and sent him by ambulance to the local major trauma unit in Stoke where he was placed in an induced coma for over a week while they stuck bits of metal in to fix the worst breaks and to allow his break to start healing. They did a good job on him but the induced coma caused him a few problems afterwards. He threatened (completely against his nature) a nurse who told him he was in Stoke as he knew he was in Liverpool. He also knew that he had been taken to Scotland by ambulance up the M6 for a scan and a pile of other experiences. Apparently this sort of problem is not uncommon after an induced coma. Coincidently there was a program on Radio 4 about people who had similar experience after an induced coma due to Covid. After hearing the program my BIL started to rationalise what had happened to him and said while he still knows what happened to him while in hospital he has logically had to accept it didn't. He spoke to the discharge nurse some weeks after his discharge who told him he has PTSD. It is hard to believe that such a simple accident could have such significant consequences.
 
Hi Al, I'm only just catching up on posts and just seen this. So sorry to hear of your wife's accident, and very glad to hear she is making an excellent recovery.

I hop everything continues to progress apace and she's back home with you ASAP.
 
A bit of an update...

Carolyn ended up staying in Gloucester Royal for only two days. They were a couple of slightly fraught days as the first day they took the paperwork from the transfer from Southmead but seemingly didn't read it and they arbitrarily changed a lot of medication (including some unrelated stuff she'd been taking before the accident). One of the doctors at Gloucester even complained about how much paperwork there was (to be fair, it was about an inch thick). That all took the first 24 hours to get sorted, but after that it was a bit smoother and the physios were impressed with her progress. After the second day in Gloucester she came home (with various bits and bobs to help with making the home more accessible).

It's going to be a long haul from here I think, but she's been home for 3 weeks now (wow, time flies) and things are gradually getting a little easier. It'll be several months before she's fully mobile again I think and the fracture clinic are expecting to be working with her for the 1–2 years.

She started community outpatient physio at the local Vale hospital yesterday. That's only a couple of minutes drive from home, so it's much easier than Southmead or Gloucester. Ongoing X-rays and fracture clinic stuff will be back at Southmead (they offered to transfer that to Gloucester if we wanted them to, but we politely declined!)
 
Good news Al.
A long tunnel ahead but at least there's light at the end of it.. I bet your domestic skills are being perfected and considering the way you approach your projects, most likely are well organized.
 
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