New Year’s Day
We had a small party at home on New Year’s Eve for 2013.
Dislocated shoulder, not a good start to the year
I was woken by the dogs at about 9.30 in the morning on New Year’s day so I stumbled down stairs to let them out for a pee. I was coming back upstairs, took a left turn onto the landing and wallop, I fell over and I was a heap on the floor. Somehow my left leg, the one with bad foot drop and its not as good as it used to be, decided to do a ballet pirouette and then collapse. Naturally, even instinctively, I put a hand down to break the fall, it was my left shoulder that took the brunt of the fall.
Dial 999
The pain was quite unbelievable and unimaginable, my scream because of the pain brought my wife out to see what I had done and how. She tried to help me to my feet but I could not cooperate. I suggested she got some help so she dialled 999. 90 minutes later a paramedic rolled up and gave me some morphine and suggested that I had suffered a dislocated shoulder but could not do anything further to help. After another 75 minutes an ambulance arrived.
A & E
Somehow the medics got me down the stairs and into the ambulance, that took another half an hour. After a 20 minute bone-shaking ride I was at Stoke Mandeville A & E. More morphine, an X-ray, left shoulder relocated into socket then another X Ray and finally told I was free to go. I had been in the hospital for nearly 7 hours.
Home and bed
When Barby got me back home a neighbour had to be summoned to help me up the steps and into the house. The cause of all this, my left leg was totally useless, I suspect it was the after effects of the morphine. Anyway after a G & T, supper and glass of wine I bum-shuffled up the stairs. Did a self catheterise, 60 mg amitriptyline and I slept through the night.
Wednesday, 3 Jan
I had an appointment to see the orthopaedic consultant. The appointment was for 4.20 and eventually saw him at 5:45. Anyway he was impressed but did tell me to be very careful not to fall onto that shoulder again. As if I would ever do a thing like that?
I’m reading this in Aug 2015 a year after my rotator cuff was reconstructed, following another more serious fall, by the consultant I saw on Wednesday 3rd Jan.
Do write in if any of you have had a similar experience especially with a dislocated shoulder or morphine? How do you cope if you have foot drop?
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[…] to my left shoulder. It has taken the brunt of a couple of falls as well as the odd stumble. The first dislocation happened in January 2013 and then another visit to hospital in February this year when I dislocated it […]
Hello Toby and Kiru,
Good to hear from you, hope you are settling in to new place and enjoying Cambridge.
It was not a good way to start the New Year. The shoulder is mending, I just have to be careful
All the best for the New Year
Patrick.
Hi Patrick – thought we’d check the blog to see what’s been happening and wish you all a happy new year. Sorry to hear you’ve had a rough time of it – as you say, things can only get better!! Take care and hope the shoulder’s on the mend.