What some people do to get sympathy

It was all going oh so well. We spent Friday out and about including checking out sites where we would spend the weekend away from Ambury Park and found a good place out at Papakura. Friday evening we were expecting some friends to come and visit, we have not seen Pete & Ann for around 16 years so we were looking forward to their company. They duly arrived at around 7.30pm and we greeted them warmly before making our way into the van for a pleasant evening of reminiscing. This is where it all started to unravel slightly. Roy went to sit down and in the turning, twisting, seating movement, with a loud popping noise he suddenly leapt and yelled “my knee”.

We settled him into his seat where he was reasonably comfortable whilst he reassured us he was fine and it would all be ok. We spent the next few hours chatting and catching up. Pete & Ann left, this is when Roy tried to stand to say his farewells, oh no, that was not possible. Once our guests had gone we decided that it would be best if he got his knee checked out, so with a monumental effort he was in the car and off to Middlemore Hospital A&E.

Of course it was not a simple task of driving to the hospital, first we have to leave Ambury, with three locked gates to negotiate which of course required the driver (Bernice) to drive to the gate, get out, unlock the gate whilst holding a torch between her teeth to enable her to crack the combination, open the gate, back into the car drive through the gate, stop, get out, close the gate, back into the car and then repeating the process to lock the gate and then onto the next gate…you get the picture.

We arrive at Middlemore at around 11pm, got a wheelchair sorted and made our way inside. Of course this was Friday night, late, and although only a few people in the waiting room, it took us some time to realise that there were at least one other entrance and the queue of people to be seen was rather large to say the least (we heard it was 117 people waiting and that was before midnight!). He did get assessed by a nurse in reasonable time, and X-rays were done at around 2am but it was around 5.30 am before a Dr made his way to see us apologizing profusely for the hold up. Apparently a very busy night.

Lying down on the job

The result of all the drama is that Roy had ruptured his Cruciate Ligament. He is now in what they call a zimmer cast for at least a month with follow up to be done later this week once swelling has reduced. Bernice returned to the van at around 6am for a couple of hrs sleep as by that stage they were transferring Roy to another department and he would not be assessed until later that morning. At 11am Bernice picked him up with crutches and cast in place and we made our way to a pharmacy to get his script filled for pain relief. Bernice went into the pharmacy to pick up his script where the helpful pharmacist went through all the medication explaining when to take what and why. Serious pain medication we are talking about here I.e. morphine with tramadol and panadol to be taken between morphine doses!!!…oops, it was at this stage that Bernice asked the pharmacist if the two harden-the-****-up-pills she told Roy to take earlier in the piece were perhaps a little harsh!!!! Yes, it was definitely a bit over the top.

Hmmm, not sure about this.

The result of all this is of course that we are not moving from Ambury, we are here for at least another week when plan B, yet to be formulated, will be put into effect.