The nurse caught my face and twigged what was going through my brain: “no, you drink this one :-)”

I laughed and downed the syringe that was handed to me.  Morphine would definitely either make me not care it was hurting or would stop the pain.  That sounded great to me.

“Twenty minutes, half an hour then we can dose you up with some local and relocate the radius.  It is almost certainly going to hurt very badly and you are going to hate me, but hopefully it will mean you don’t have any problems later on.”

Jon was back from the car, having checked on our son too and I lay my head on his lap.  Hopefully we’d be home in an hour.  Relocate, plaster, x-ray, home.  Easy, right.

As one of the oldest and best performing forms of analgesia morphine does knock me out.  When the nurse came back and did the injection for the local anaesthetic, I didn’t really feel the needle go into the gap between the ulna and radius.  I happily moved to the room where the nurse would try to realign my bone and got comfortable though I had this nagging thought that despite the painkiller the next 10 minutes of my life were going to be excruciatingly painful.

The nurse treating me had found a buddy, nearly twice the size of the original (I thought babushka and thought this is not the time to laugh), he looked concerned at my husband.  “You’re not going to like me: this is going to be really horrible to watch,” which Jon shrugged off

So the big guy holds me by the upper arm, fixing my elbow.  The other nurse held my wrist firmly and pulls and twists until there really is a popping sound.  When that happened, he put the arm onto a back board and starts to plaster it up.  When the plaster is dry, they’ll check it with a x-ray but all being well I should be on the home straight.  After the plaster is on, I realise it didn’t hurt - man those were good painkillers!

The x-ray showed it was a great realignment, which the nurse was really chuffed about.  There was a 19:20 chance it would dislocate itself while healing, apparently this doesn’t happen with pre-teens and the under 70s.  If it stayed put, two to four weeks and I should be right as rain.  Two weeks would mean I could take my bike down to France for the holiday I had booked - nothing like having something to aim for to help the healing process

Come back in on Tuesday for an x-ray and keep up with the pain killers.

My husband took my son to one side and pulled his skates off, he took my shoes and my bag out to the car.  Lots people then came over to try and help.  I kept my hand on the floor, I figured keeping it as stationary is possible was the best thing I could do.  I knew it was broken though I am not sure how; I’d always thought there’d be a snapping sound if I ever broke anything and there was nothing like that.

The manager came out to check the situation and a sling and some ice were presented.  Jon had gone back home to get our family car.  Everyone asked if there was anything they could do and almost like a proper parent, I finally worked out I was heading to hospital and what on earth were we going to do with our eight year old for the duration.  Casualty (ED) on a Saturday afternoon was probably not going to be a fun place for him!

The parents of the birthday girl oftered to take our son home at the end of the party, which was fantastic.  All I had to do was cope with the pain and wait for Jon.

Oh, wait, I came to the sports centre on my motorbike: what on earth was going to happen to that?  When the manager came over to check I was OK, I got him to promise not to clamp my bike - the sports centre had a locked down car park, and he was fairly happy with the arrangement.  The manager then took a lot of persuasion not to call an ambulance, in my bike gear I didn’t fancy taking up their time as this was completely my fault and while was really painful but let’s face it, not life threatening.  Also, while they might get me some very decent pain relief (yes, I was thinking about that) my fingers had circulation, so waiting for Jon was the best course of action.

While I am always happy to see my husband, the elelation I felt allowed me to get back on my feet; strangely the pain made me feel really naucious.  I was still shoeless, but the car was going to get me to people who would help so that was fine.  The sling was now really soggy, but I was so grateful I had it: as a means of allowing you to move a broken arm the sling is awesome.

So we drive to hospital: I felt every bump, the people who decide the emergency department should have speed ramps before it our saddists: especially if there is no speed over which you can cross them without moving the car.  Jon dropped me off and I checked in with reception.

I got triaged and some pain relief, and then was sent back to wait for the xray.  The pain relief took the edge off but it was still insanely painful.  The swelling hadn’t increased which agian was comforting.

Casualty is all doors, you do get help, but it is a lot quicker if you ask for it.  You go from being almost comfortable in the waiting room through to the queue for the xray, whcih is where Jon caught up with me.  It was so good to see him again.  The xray was taken and I asked to have a look.

There wasn’t an obvious break!  I couldn’t quite believe it but both arm bones from the lateral view: fantastic, I have never been so grateful to be wrong.  This meant the arm would heal without too much intervention and pain would be short term :-).

So, feeling a bit confused about why my arm was still very painful, I returned to Jon with half a smile on my face: I was going to be fine.  I was just waiting to be sent home.  Jon had gone back out to extend the parking ticket time, I was waiting for someone to tell me I could go home.

The nurse who was treating me came back out and didn’t look as relieved as I was feeling.  He asked me to come and look at the x-rays.  I’d only seen the lateral view which was completely aligned: the AP wasn’t.  I had a dislocated distal radial fracture, while I had almost certainly saved a lot of problems by pulling it straight it would need to be relocated along the anterior–posterior axis.  This was not an easy job, but he was one of the best trained people in the hospital and he could do it.  First job would be some pain relief.

I am diabetic and am used to injections: when the nurse came back with a huge syringe and a massive needle and began drawing up the brown liquid my colour faded!  Jon was no where to be found and this looked like it was going to hurt before it got better…

The sun was shining and I was meeting my family at Orwell’s.  I got there early, met some friends, looked at the bikes and had a good time.  My son and husband turned up a little later.  They had some lunch and then left.  So Kenneth could tend his friend’s birthday party.

Originally, I hadn’t planned on going to the roller disco my son’s friend was having at a local sports centre.  It was such a nice day; I really missed my family.  So I decided to meet them at the sports centre.  I got their way too early.  So i having quite a great for I could see the cake arrived: the cake looked amazing.  It was such a lovely day, I just enjoyed the sun.

I chose quite quickly to help out, but wasn’t really sure what I could do. As the children got their skates on, it was obviou that some of the children could skate and then some didn’t really know how to skate, some had some experience a while ago and they were not used to the skates.

So I decide to help a couple of the children.  They have been left on their own, mostly because they could basically skate, they just lacked confidence.  I realised I was saying is really easy: you just lean forward, bend the knees, don’t fall over.  It had been years since I had skated and I really fancied having a go at it.  I looked at my husband, said what I was thinking.  “Ask then,” said Jon.

We were having a good time

I asked the lady if I could have a pair of 5 1/2 they only had sixes so I tried them.  They weren’t great, a little big on the left foot, but they did.  I’d never used skates were with breaks before; it’s a strange.  In the end, I never used the brake, as I wasn’t sure how to.  Stopping was a little awkward, I was managing: sitting down on the chase was worth.  I found it quite tiring John Waite got me a Coca-Cola which is really nice.  Jon also put on some skates.  He was dancing to the music, he looked awesome.  After while when all the kids are skating well, actually I should mention the birthday girl skating shoes really good, a limbo was set up so the children could skate under the bar.

Personally I thought this was beyond my the capability.  Then again Jon was awesome and managing it with ease.  Well, he made it look easy to me.  I still wasn’t keen.  It looked tricky to me.  And I was enjoying going round in circles.  My little boy was getting quite tired and I kept him company but felt I was cramping his style, and he should be enjoying his friends.

The limbo has been getting lower and lower which made it less accessible to me.  They suddenly put it up far fewer children seemed be using it, so I fancied my chances.  A full good run up, and I could clear it.

So that’s why did. In fact, my head hit the bar while I was shifting trying to clear it.  Because I was going so fast I got pushed backwards and as I was falling I thought I got three choices here:

1. hit my head
2. land my bum
3. put out my hand