(Continued from Part One!)

...this lil scratch! Now... this had to be one of the strangest moments in my life. As you can see from looking at the scratch, you could say its not exactly a papercut, yet at the time, there was absolutely no unusual sensation on my shin where the scratch was, pain or otherwise. In fact, if anything it was my left thigh that was still aching, so as I stared at my shin in a mixture of disbelief and wonder: the disbelief from the fact that if this was as bad as it looked, then why did it not hurt more?... and the wonder as to how a wound this deep is not bleeding, and in addition just trying to rationalise to myself that I may just be staring at a combination of bone and sinew... MY bone and sinew! Either way, there was a definite alarm bell of concern that was ringing that told me that this... was... not... good!


I immediately dropped my trouser leg to cover it again, put on a nice lil poker face, moved to a quiet corner away from the others, and called Dan over. When he arrived, I knew wanted both a second opinion, as well as wanting to see the look on his face (Dan being man that is always composed in the midst of any situation)... as soon as I showed it to him, he took one look and nodded once (and I think maybe raised an eyebrow) and pointed straight at my leg saying "You need to go to hospital!". I think I remember chuckling.

First of all we called over our resident Mystical Medic, Doctor J (I'll keep his name out of this, but suffice to say he studies Ninjitsu Medicine amongst other things, and always carries some type of kit with him to treat people). Obviously, on seeing the scratch, Doctor J was off and back in a flash with his bag of tricks. I sat down on a wall and elevated my leg, and Doc told me to brace myself as he prepared to sprinkle in some magical substance into the wound that would stem the bleeding (apparently used by the Chinese military for use by field medics on wounds like these)... I braced myself, but oddly enough, no pain!! Now to me, that wasn't as reassuring as you may think, as, with a wound like this one, you are SUPPOSED to feel pain!! Still, i remained calm, and let Doc strap me up, as Andy sorted out a ride for me to the hospital. Now, to me this was all fun, what with being painless and all, but the expressions... no.. the grimaces on the faces of anyone that saw my leg would make you think otherwise!

Still, I got up, limped over to Mr.Blinky and his motorbike, tossed on a helmet and hopped on the back!

I have to say, the ride to the hospital was an interesting experience, as obviously I didn't want to bend my right leg at all! This meant that with my leg hanging straight, for every right turn we took on the road, I'd have to elevate my leg up slightly as the bike leant the ground closer and closer towards my foot! Still, it was a short trip and we arrived at the hospital within around 5 minutes (not because Blinky's a maniac on the road or anything... no... he was much more controlled than I thought), but because thankfully, St.Thomas' was fairly a close distance by road!

Now... I'll skip most of the details of waiting in Casualty to be seen, but lets just say that there were some interesting characters in that waiting room...

"Now, to me this was all fun, what with being painless and all, but the expressions... no.. the grimaces on the faces of anyone that saw my leg would make you think otherwise!"

...there was the nice lady that had been locked out of her house by closing the door and locking her keys inside, and so had decided to break back in by climbing over her garden fence - the very same garden fence that was covered in end to end in Barbed wire! Lets just say that her bandages that she'd dressed herself with were now soaked a pretty shade of crimson, which matched the shade of her embarrassed face as she told me her tale...

...then there was Old Man Tony... a VERY loud, and very friendly old fella who told me that from time to time would succumb to dizzy spells and faint, often knocking his head, which was a shame... but then, the fact that also admitted that he'd consumed copious amounts of alcohol before some of these spells might have had something to do with the falls? Maybe...?

...and then there was this one very attractive girl that walked in not too long after I did, but unlike everyone else that looked forlorn, dizzy or bloody, she looked fit as a fiddle, and just a little peeved at having to wait around rather than be off living it up. Her story sounded relatively benign: she'd felt some pain in her Achilles while walking around, but being a Sunday, her GP wasn't open, and because she was working the next day wanted to get a sick-note to cover her shift... (turns out she was a student of fashion as well as director of short films... if fact, she later showed me a short Mafia movie she'd directed which makes me think she's out to be the next Martin Scorsese) ...to cut a long story short, after seeing the doctors at the hospital and being examined, it turned out that she'd had a strain on her Achilles over time, and



was advised to rest her feet as much as possible, take some pain-killers, and for the moment to only walk around in high-heels! Thinking logically, I think the position of the feet in heels would cause less pressure on her Achilles Tendon... and from the smile on her face, I don't think she minded one bit! Of course, if in my life I ever have a pain my MY Achilles, I will not be heading to St.Thomas' for treatment ;)

...but I digress...

Labels: Injuries