The Week that was...

It all started on Monday afternoon. Andy had returned from the US the day before and knowing jet lag would set in had decided to leave work earlier than normal intending to watch the girls do swimming. Unfortunately he didn't quite make it.

Swimming starts at 4.30 for both girls and goes for an hour. Around 4.50pm, I answered a call from Andy (thankfully I actually noticed, usually I miss anyone who rings!). He sounded slightly odd and very brief. Essentially the conversation went something like this -

Andy - Can you come and pick me up.
Me - Sure what's wrong?
Andy - I'vve just crashed my mountain bike
Me - Are you ok?
Andy - Can you just come. I'm on Dyrandra St. You'll see me.
Me - Ok I'll be there soon.

I found Nadine who was at the pool, explained the situation and knew the girls would be looked after until my return. Luckily Dyrandra St is less than a 10min drive from the AIS and I was soon pulling up next to where Andy was.

He was sitting on the verge, arm wrapped up in his cycling top looking rather pale. I loaded his bike and bag while he climbed into the passengers side. As I got in I asked him whether he'd broken his arm, no he replied just cut it, unwrapping the top to reveal a large and deep gash in his forearm.

Righto straight to A&E then for some stitches. Fortunately A&E was on the way back to the AIS.  After ensuring he was safely checked in, without fainting, I returned to the AIS where the girls had both finished their sessions. They were shocked to hear the news about Andy.

Our plan was to head back home, have dinner and hopefully by then return to pick up Andy who had hopefully been all stitched up. What do they say about the worlds greatest plans? Calling Sandra on the way home, she convinced me to drop the girls off to her house for dinner and go back to accompany Andy.

Arriving at A&E I was surprised to see Andy sitting in the waiting area. He informed me that he'd had an X-ray and was waiting to be seen again. It wasn't long before we were ushered back inside with preparation of stuff needed to clean and stitch the wound.

We all know Andy isn't that great with needles or medical stuff really. So the Dr was surprised when Andy said he'd rather not have local anaesthetic while the wound was being cleaned out. He obliged and began the process of removing the gravel bits. However after all the superficial stuff was taken, the Dr said he needs to clean deeper and would prefer to do this under local. Andy reluctantly agreed, had the needle and surprisingly didn't faint!

It was at this point that our night took a turn...... the Dr was continuing to remove dirt from under the skin when suddenly his finger disappeared down towards Andy's elbow and he said oh! It seemed that Andy had torn the bursa (the space between the muscle and fat which allows movement without friction between these said structures). Our Dr now needed to call TCH (The Canberra Hospital) for further advice.

A few murmuring on the phone wasn't a good sign. He then beckoned me over to the workstation where he pointed out the gravel trail on the X-ray which on closer inspection extended from the edges of the wound down to near the olecranon (pointy bit of the elbow). This he says I can't clean out, it requires surgery!

Next Andy was hit up with a dose of IV antibiotics before we made the transfer to TCH. We swung by home first to grab a few things and kiss the girls good night. Sandra had brought the girls home and was in the process of getting them in bed.

With the letter from Calvary and previous phone call, I thought we'd skip the queue at A&E at TCH. No such luck. We patiently waited for another 2 hours before being seen by the orthopaedic register who promptly took one look at the x-ray and exclaimed nothings broken (we already knew that). He then peeled off the bandage to assess the wound and declared it was for the 'plastics team' and subsequently left to converse with them. On his return, he bandaged Andy back up and told him that they would be admitting him.

I left the hospital around 11.30pm. Andy had a sleepless night - firstly waiting to be allocated a bed and then dealing with the noise of the other patients in particular a poor 93 year old lady who woke frequently and asked when her parents were coming to pick her up :(

Hoping to be on the surgery list for Tuesday, Andy spent the day fasting with a drip and scheduled infusion of IV antibiotics. Later that afternoon he was transferred to ward 5B bed 17, a four bed ward where he learnt that a fellow patient had been waiting 4 days for his debridement of his wounds sustained in a motorcycle accident. And so Andy was told at 6pm that he didn't make it on to the surgical list and was able to eat. He made a beeline for coffee and food! The girls and I visited him that evening. They were both a little quiet and anxious absorbing all the hospital stuff that us adults take for granted.

Wednesday dawned with hope of surgery. I was working listening intently for my phone to buzz. No such text arrived. Again at 6.30pm, after another day of fasting and confinement to the ward, he was informed he didn't make the list. Luckily we were a little more prepared. Andy escaped from the ward out, enjoying a picnic dinner on the oval in the fresh air!

Thursday, the early morning rounds took place and the Doctor informed him that he had an 80% chance of making it on to the list. Our spirits were lifted! However at lunchtime, Andy asked a nurse how he was looking on the list only to be told that he wasn't on the list!!! Sandra and Cathy happened to be visiting and decided to look into getting it done privately but were unsuccessful with this. And then the wardsman appeared, collected Andy without any warning and he was on his way!

Surgery went well and we visited Andy again in the evening. We were all hoping after a few more courses of IV antibiotics he would be out by lunchtime the next day in time for me to head off for the weekend to an ultrasound workshop in Sydney.

Unfortunately the morning rounds saw the Doctor request Andy to stay in for another night. More about prevention of a potential infection developing and spreading to the bone. Reluctantly Andy resigned himself to another night. I palmed the girls off to various friends for the night and bussed it up to Sydney on Friday afternoon.

A shattered Andy was discharged from hospital on Saturday lunchtime. The girls were very happy to have him home and he was equally happy to be there too! The forearm healed nicely without any dramas however the week long stay took its toll on Andy and it wasn't until a few weeks later that he felt back to normal.

So we have decided to ban any of the Hogg siblings from riding mountain bikes. In the past 12 months they all have had significant crashes - Cathy has had concussions in both of her two crashes and Susie sustained concussion in her tumble.