20-7-2024
We had quite a bit of a thing this week. All the rain made the pavements everywhere extremely slippery. In Hinterland, we had both almost fallen down because of the slipperiness. Then Jaklien fell on her knee after returning to St Albert's. But that is nothing compared to what happened to me, Simon. Because of algae growth, the campus is as slippery as an ice rink in some places. On Thursday night, I went down full on a wet stretch, hitting the ground hard on my left side. Trousers and shirt dirty and elbow bleeding. Bummer. I took off my clothes and took a shower. Jaklien lovingly provided a bandage and we went to sleep peacefully.
On Friday, getting up was hard and my side was quite sore, but with a few paracetamol I reckoned it would be fine. So Friday afternoon we had our lecture, to a group of journalism students,as if nothing was wrong. And it went just fine. However, a nagging and sometimes stabbing pain persisted, especially when sitting down, lifting and standing. From Friday to Saturday, despite a double dose of paracetamol, I could barely sleep because of the pain. Saturday morning, the pain was considerably more severe than Friday. Perhaps there was more to it, so we decided to take a taxi to the Lourdes hospital on Saturday after lunch. Unfortunately, the taxi ride was painful at every bump in the road. That's some way to find out how lousy the roads are here and there.
At the hospital, we were referred to the emergency room, where the symptoms were quickly inventoried. While Jaklien was whisked away to the waiting room, I was taken care of. For the pain, I was given a strong painkiller intravenously, but movement and deep breathing left a stabbing pain. It was soon clear that a proper diagnosis required X-ray. After the visit to the radiologist, what we were already a little afraid of turned out to be reality: I had broken a rib. The elbow apparently pressed a little too hard into my rib cage during the fall.
The surgeon came by to discuss the results. It became clear that there would be no surgery unless there was additional internal damage, such as fluid accumulation, internal bleeding or organ damage. To assess that, an ultrasound scan was needed, and for the ultrasound to be successful, you need to have a full bladder. I was given water to drink, until I felt the urge to urinate. That took over three hours and 11 cups of water. Fortunately, the ultrasound showed that there were no complications. So the end of the story was that there was no surgical intervention needed. However, I was given a bunch of pills: painkillers, vitamins, antibiotics and antacids to help me tolerate the painkillers. Finally, I was given a respirometer, a device with coloured balls in it, to do breathing exercises with five times a day. After all, you don't want to be saddled with pneumonia.
So our second visit to Lourdes Hospital was not quite what we had planned. In any case, we received excellent help, and at a very modest cost. For the next few weeks, I will be taking it easy and waiting the injury to heal. Unfortunately, that could take wel over six weeks. Fortunately, I have a lovely nurse to look after me :)
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