From Amy ....To all GOY members and good friends

Wonderful card, Amy.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
love & hugs from T, C, T & C xxx :o)

Thanks Amy and the same to you xxxx :>)

Thanks TT , love and hugs to you and your little gang and good health to you all xxx :o))

Thanks Motinot , best wishes x

Thanx for |Your Lovely Card & Wishes Amy i hope ur Christmas & New Year will be filled with much Joy & Cheer :) XXXXX

Awwww - that's so cute! Thank you Amy and all best Christmassy wishes from me and Birtie to you and yours and lovely Marmy of course ;-)

Happy christmas to you Amy............

And a very merry xmas to you Amy and your family xx

Merry Christmas Amy to you and yours, and all the very best for the New Year

Merry Christmas to you, Amy, and your family!

Lovely card Amy, thankyou. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours. :~))

Happy Christmas and New Year, Amy - brilliant card :)

Thank you so much for all your kind wishes everyone xx

I'm about to take my hubby up to the Doctors .. he fell in a wood belonging to a farmer friend today , he was by himself and hardly managed to get home , I had to help him into the house as he has hurt his back badly , fingers crossed that it's not as bad as it seems , I don't even know how I will get him from the car into the surgery !!

OMG Amy wish i lived closer 2 help u :(xxx

Oh no! Hope he feels better soon Amy....maybe some sturdy rambling equipment is in order for Christmas prezzie then?!

Amy, I hope it's not serious. I have chronic lower back pain and I can recommend - prescribed anti inflammatories/lying flat on your back on the floor/wheatbags you heat in the microwave and a sympathetic partner. Good luck to hubby. :-(

Hope, he feels OK soon, Amy...

Merry Christmas Amy, love your card......hope your hubby is ok.

Happy Christmas to you and your family Amy. Thank you for everything you've helped me with during 2009 and looking forward to chatting to you in 2010.
PS Hope hubby is more comfortable today, nothing worse that when you cant move with a bad back

Merry Christmas Amy, to you and yours.
Poor Hubby, hope he is not too bad.... I use the heat wraps when mine is acting up. The warmth helps to stop the muscles seizing up....

lovely card amy, merry xmas to you both and your family,:o) x
hope hubby is ok and his back isnt to serious :o( xx

Lovely car, Many Thanks, Amy. Wishing you All the best, too, hoping that hubby isn't badly hurt, from us 3 here. XXX

`~Merry Christmas Amy! I hope your huuby is a lot better by now~Have you tried Ibuprofen Gel rubbed in where it hurts?
Arlenexx

Just love your card Amy and hope your Hubbies alright, wishing you and your family a very Happy Christmas xx

Merry Christmas :o))
xxx

Jacque thank you for your offer of help , that was so kind of you .. :o)

It's 12. 02 just past midnight and we have only just come home from the A & E dept . at Norwich Hospital .... That's 7 hours from the time we had a Doctors app. . Tony couldn't walk even to the car so the Dr. rang me to tell me to take him straight to the A & E .. , I picked up a wheel chair at the entrance , that was a new experience for me , it ran every which way it wanted to ... I put a £1 in it , that disappeared while we were in a cubicle !
He was so cold I had to cover him with our coats to stop him shivering..
The tree fell on his back knocking him into a gully trapping his leg underneath ..he had to remove his shoe to free his leg and then managed to drive home stopping twice because he felt so sick .. when he arrived home he rang me from outside to ask me to bring walking sticks out to help him inside .....
Nobody was with him , it could have been much worse it could have hit him on the head and nobody would have known where he was !!
Anyway the x-ray results showed a cracked Pelvic bone and severe bruising ..
The Doctors have said it will be a few weeks before he will feel better ...
I'm so tired I must go to bed .. Night ,Night .......

Oh blimey Amy ! I doubt you'll both get much sleep tonight. Let's hope for a speedy and complete recovery. My best wishes to both of you.

Thanks Muddywalters , I thought we were the only people still up ,still deciding were to be to get comfortable ... :o)

~sorry to hear your story at A and E Amy~was at the local one from about 11pm until 5.30ama few years ago when I broke my ankle in two places~it's so boring!~hope he is on the mend soon!use Arnica cream for the bruising~it's brilliant!

A&Es make me so Angry Amy & 2 hear u now have to put coins in the Wheel chairs is awful :( I do hope Poor Hubby is feeling better soon what a horrid thing to of happened to him ,good thing Christmas Hoils r almost here so he can put his feet up & heal quicker:)

Oh Amy what a shock for you ! I hope Tony is all right today. Keep us posted on his progress :O

So the perfect excuse for hubby to be waited on hand and foot over Xmas....! Bit drastic really Tony!!!
Only joking, hope you feel better soon, I agree with Arlene, arnica is brilliant for bruising. Keep us posted Amy, and take care yourself. :o)

Oh Amy I feel so sorry for you and your poor Husband, what an awfil thing to have happened especially at this time of the year, I am amazed to hear you have to put coins into a wheelchair at the hospital thats dreadful! hope you both managed some sleep , will be thinking about you . Take Care Love Carole xx

Thanks for all your well wishes x
Arlene we were there for 6 hrs.I have some Homoepathic Arnica in the bathroom cupboard I will get it out now !

Jacque , I wish you lived next door , I could have used some help , that wheel chair was a nightmare there was a curb leading into A&E .. not a wheelchair friendly slope , a curb .. my backs not good at the best of times so you can imagine the struggle I had ! plus you have to pay £ 2. for the car park .....

Thanks Hywel , I'm angry that he was on his own , I didn't know which wood he was in , he could have been laying there in the dark for hours .....

PG , this is getting to be a regular event to get out of anything to do with Christmas , last year at exactly the same time he was rushed in for a Hernia op... Yes I agree it is a bit drastic :o)

The update is ..he slept 'till 9.am because of the strong pain killers , he couldn't get out of bed , he managed an inch at a time with a chair for support , ( screaming at every movement )
I rang the surgery to see if I could loan some kind of support that he could hold onto because the chair is heavy , they have told me that you have to have been assessed by someone before they allow you to have anything , and that all takes time !
Tony told me not to bother , they make everything so difficult for you ...
My daughter knows someone who has some crutches she is going to see if she can borrow them if they still have them ,it might help ..
I will keep you informed as to how he gets on.x

Thank Carole .. It was me that didn't get the sleep .. LOL.. the wheelchair disappeared when we were in a cubicle and my £1 with it ,I had to get another one to take him out :o(

Amy get in touch with the local Red cross asap they will loan you a wheelchair within a few hours!my hubby broke his leg last year and they gave us one straight away`~ just had to pick it up! keep using the Arnica~ my son crushed his hand whilst working on his car~ used it every few hours~ amazing results!

They told me at the surgery that the Red Cross don't let equipment out very often now Arlene , still it's worth trying , thanks ..
My daughter has just rung ,she knows someone who has a wheelchair that they are willing to lend us , she will bring it over after school today .. Brill ...

By the way Sid .. he wasn't rambling , he had a chain saw in one hand !!!!

My Mother had a wheelchair from the Red Cross, and she could have had anything else she wanted. It was only for a certain period of time but I found them brilliant.

me too Hywel~try all the local branches Amy!

My daughter is bringing one over later that someone is happy to lend to us ...
I always thought you could get anything from the Red Cross but the surgery told me no .. perhaps tha'ts another expense they have cut down on !

~ great ~but this is their national site Amy ~ i think your surgery are wrong!

Medical equipment
"My wheelchair meant I could start going out with my family and friends again."

Find us near you

Our volunteer-led medical equipment service provides wheelchair hire and short-term loans of equipment in almost 1000 outlets in the UK, helping tens of thousands of people every year.

How do we help people?

The medical equipment service helps people return to their own homes after illness or surgery, enables them to go on holiday with friends or family, and promotes independence. The main types of equipment provided include:

* wheelchairs
* backrests
* bath seats
* walking sticks and frames
* commodes, bedpans and urinals.

What skills and training do our volunteers have?

Our volunteers have good interpersonal skills and an understanding of the differing physical needs of service users. All our volunteers are also provided with basic training in social care and first aid skills.
How do I get in touch?

If you would like further information, please get in touch with your local Red Cross branch office. Equipment is usually available within 24 hours in an emergency and is loaned free of charge, although a refundable deposit may be requested. We also welcome donations from our service users, which help us to continue providing this valuable service.~

OMG Amy! A tree actually fell on him??!! :-O

My mum took a tumble and hurt her ankle a couple of years ago - I was so annoyed by the rude and unhelpful and slow treatment she recieved in A&E and I wrote a sturn letter and...guess what....I got a really grovelling apology from them!!! Must admit, I hadn't expected to!! Get well soon Hubby! :-)

This is not so good, Amy :-(

I. too, swear by arnica cream for bruising, ever since James, as a toddler, fell and banged his head. Not so much as bruise showed up using the cream, and has worked ever since. I would, perhaps, also consider comfrey (knitbone) tea for the fracture (great if you can get leaves and make your own). However, would be cautious with this if on strong painkillers, maybe just one cup a dayfor the next 3 days or so). Good to hear that you are getting wheels, though. I hate to think what else could have happened, especially with a chainsaw!!!!!!!

Arlene I will check up on this as it is a bit strange .. my daughter said that a friend of hers had the same problem that is why one of them has a pair of crutches to spare after she broke a leg , her mum bought them for her at the cost of £100. very strange !!

Sid they weren't rude , they were busy all the cubicles were full , why you have to wait so long between each treatment goodness knows ! that 7 hours could have been squashed into one hour if they had done one thing straight after another ...
Hubby is never normally ill so he is lapping up all the attention .. :o)

Thanks for your advice David , I have a good herbal medicine book I will check that out .... He didn't even have his mobile on him he had left it in his truck .... I'm looking forward to our daughter coming with the wheels , she said she is going to read him the riot act AND SHOUT ..LOL..

I'm glad that at least they weren't rude Amy.....you wouldn't believe how the young nurse spoke to my mum - I really was shocked by it - and we really didn't do or say a thing to provoke or upset her. Guess she must just have had a really bad day and we were unlucky enough to be the ones she was seeing when she finally snapped. We were there for hours too but we had to wait for results of xrays and things.

~maybe your area doesn't do it but ours still seems to ~we only handed the wheel chair back in June when he was confident he didn't need it anymore~our local hospital provided crutches as my hubby left but we didn't wait for an ambulance as my son came out and picked us up at about 2 am.after having plaster put on.
This was Feb this year and they were at full stretch with young and old breaking bones on the ice.We had lots of snow, it melted, then froze and was quite lethal! ~Hywel is in the same locality as I am and sounds as though his mum was offered anything she needed ~maybe it's just Wales but worth enquiring?
I never seem to have my mobile on when needed in an emergency such as when I broke my ankle out on the golf course with the dogs late at night~the two dogs were fantastic and got me home by taking some of my weight and walking really slowly~they were really great!~ but the moral is to always have it in a zipped pocket on you and maybe a hip flask with brandy would be good?Christmas prezzie?
nb my hubby has just reminded me that he was sent a questionnaire recently asking about the service he had and how he would rate it!

hi amy hope hubby is feeling ok and not to much pain,, poor man awfull to think what could have happened,, anyway just glad he will be ok,, both take care and try enjoy your xmas xx

Arlene my daughter has been over with the wheelchair and crutches this evening , she has been making enquires today and it would appear that the Red Cross only have a certain number of items and when they are out on loan that's it there aren't any more .. ...... we didn't use an ambulance but I think I would if anything like it happened again , it was very difficult for me to get him in and out of the car and to manage the wheel chair etc. You sound as though both you and your hubby have been through a smashing time ...breaking bones .. I hope you have both healed well and haven't had any complications .. :o) your dogs behaved fantasticaly in seeing you home , they are much cleverer than we think .. it will be interesting to see if we get a questionnaire !

Thanks Sandra , I'm hoping he will have another good nights sleep that will help to take the edge off it ..our son and his boys are coming down for Christmas that is hard work at anytime but they do love coming ..:o)

Thinking of Tony... and of you, Amy.... I know that your back can be very painful at times. At least one of you needs to be pain-free and mobile over Christmas and New Year. !....xxx

So sorry to hear of your experiences Amy and shocked to hear of wheelchairs being charged for like food trolleys ..whatever happened to hospital porters ?

Sadly it doesnt pay to be stoical if hubby claiming to be Ok then in a lot of pain he ll be taken at his word ..almost need to exaggerate discomfort to be seen.What would happen if you hurt yourself helping your husband ?

Hubby must say he cant move and you must say you cant manage otherwise you ll both be left to cope .. of course this discomfort warrants an ambulance good grief think of the drunks that ll get to use one over Christmas ..

We all try to appreciate others needs and how busy staff are unfortunately this tends to push us to the back of the queue ..

Wishing you both well and speedy recovery to hubby.

im sure they will pitch in at christmas amy , also it will cheer you up having them, take your mind off it all :o))

Thanks TT , it is a worry with me having back trouble it would be difficult to cope if we are both crashed .. !! x

BB .. i've had my daughter over this evening telling us both off for not getting other people to help us more .. we should have had an ambulance / we should have had a porter to help with the wheelchair / we should have done this /we should have done that , .... yes miss daughter we will do that if there is ever a next time .. LOL.. thank you for concern and best wishes BB .... . :o)

I'm sure they will Sandra , they can take Grandad for wheelies down the road in his borrowed wheelchair ... :o)

Sorry Amy it did sound a bit like a lecture didnt it .. like you dont like to complain make a fuss etc certainly not for myself but found it so much easier on others behalf.

As you know if your back goes then so much else will go with it .. please know it doesnt come easy to you but play up the back pain as if it does go youll need all this help anyway ..and possibly some for yourself ..so your saving trouble arent you ?

My father lives in the South and the hospital so big they have porters with electric cars to transport patients around.They did try and charge £5 for me to park I said clamp me and my dad will need an ambulance home .. how much will that be ?

Having had a mother with Alzheimers toughens you up .. they cant complain for themselves ..always thought it strange how I could clear a ward of staff at visiting time lol

I didn't think of yours as being a lecture BB , plain common sense ! the thing is both my husband and myself have never had family to fall back on when things have gone wrong , we have learnt to stand on our own two feet , our daughter is trying to make us see that we should get help when we need it , it's hard to stand back and not attempt to do things that you have always done ......
I really think it's wicked the way they charge to park at hospitals people don't want to be ill .. ... some people have to visit every day ! ........

~they have abolished parking charges here in Wales but it is almost impossible to find a space~probably doesn't help that the Uni is right next door ...

Just from experience Amy seeing my father trying to cope with mum if anything happened to him then services would have to cope .. staff irritated with me saying he wasnt coping and eventually pushed to saying he wouldnt cope any longer and made to feel so guilty for saying it .

Sad indeed that genuinely caring and concerned partners pushed to such extremes .. please do it whilst you have the ability to do so and not when you yourself may be in agony with your own pain.

Of course the circumstances very different but the principle the same.
You will be expected to cope until your own health suffers and you say I cant do this ...how does that help you or your husband ?

Think thats really where your daughter coming from not cross with you .. just the way services operate these days.

I know she 's not cross with us BB , just worried , she is constantly trying to make us go to live near them , even tonight she said that Ryan our grandson wished we lived near them so that he could bike round to see us every night , emotional blackmail .. they live 40 miles from us we like our area better and have friends here .... . and we have spent a long time getting the garden half decent ..LOL..
It must be awful to watch your parents suffer when you have always known them to be fit and well and proudly independent ... ..
I have helped hubby to bed , hopefully he will have a good night and feel better in the morning ..
Night ,Night BB , thanks for your concern it helps me put things into perspective x

I think that's why they charge here Arlene 'cos people use it as a car park into the city and the Uni . is just up the road .... !!!

Amy, I'm so sorry to hear about all this - just before Christmas! I do hope that the 'patient' is BEING 'patient'!!!!!

Just as you were wishing us all a Happy Christmas, too! Well - I hope that you and your family can make a Christmas that IS a happy one...and you're right - it could have been worse.

NHS? I can't even think about it! :-((( What a nasty experience for you both!

Thank you Barbara .. .. He is being a good patient ! I don't know how long it will last he's not use to keeping still for very long , he had a good nights sleep last night I think the tablets are helping with that ... .. I must keep him moving now and again apparently to stop any blood clots from developing ... My daughter has been on to our Dr's secretary , because we weren't told about any after care , the secretary said they haven't even had the notes from the Hospital .. she is going to get them sent through today .....

So sorry to hear what problems you have had getting held with your poorly husband. Being an ex-NHS worker it makes me want to scream! The Red Cross were brilliant when I broke my ankle and when my grandson broke his leg, provided wheelchairs for us both (not at the same time!) and just asked for a donation.

I hope your husband feels more comfortable very soon. Take care that you don't over do it too. Very best wishes to your both.

Thank you Gee , that's very kind of you ....he is actually feeling worse today , he has seized up and can hardly move , not surprising really .. all he wants to do is sleep , that's not like him at all ..
Our daughter brought a wheelchair and crutches over that she borrowed from a friend's mother , so that's one good thing sorted ...
Thank you for your good wishes .. he has been very pleasantly surprised at how people care :o)

Thanks Amy :) Happy holidays to you too!

~we had good experiences with them too Gee~ my husband took me everywhere in the wheelchair when I broke my ankle as I couldn't manage crutches at all~ Amy~ even Sainbury's and Tesco suffer from the free parking problem as the car park charges are quite high~ especially if you have to pay £5 daIly to get to work!

Wouldn't it make for a far happier country if we had free parking and no clamping anywhere , nobody would stay any longer than they had to , we would all have a huge smiles on our faces .. :o)

Poor Tony, the body always seizes up more a day or two after a fall, bruising setting in. Arnica! Sleeping is the body's way of recovering from the shock of the accident and in helping the healing process. But you're right, he needs to move around a bit too to help circulation..... :o)

~the local counci has paid a fortune for new bendy buses and has completely devastated the city centre in order to be able to get the buses through it~ of course it now wants everyone to use these huge monsters~2 buses long! ~so the car parking charges and lack of enough carparks is deliberate and part of their green agenda.Just don't think they needed to be as big~they are never full! and the work whilst they were doing it nearly drove people out of business because no one could bear the upheaval!
Don't get me wrong I will freely admit that when my hubby and I go out shopping we use the car but on my own I will use my bus pass, but won't buy groceries because I simply can't carry them.If public transport was more reliable and user friendly~ our local bus runs hourly during the day and then something like two hourly in the evening~more people would use it and we wouldn't need so much car parking space....

I've seen and been on those monster park and ride buses in York Arlene ...
we have a good set of park and drive routes here, theres 8 round the city of Norwich but we still have to drive to reach them ! I use my bus pass on them , up until recently we had to get a ticket at a machine which meant that even if you had a bus pass you still had to pay , but thats changed and we can now go free ..
I have to use the car for shopping I couldn't possibly carry those heavy weights .........

Oh Amy....I don't know where I've been to miss this news........what a dreadful situation and poor Tony! That must be soooo painful, as you know I had a trapped nerve in my back a couple of months ago, but this must be horrendous.
I'll pm you. X

SOrry to hear your news Amy, Hope Tony feels a little better now. I think you can shop on line now for a home delivery if you can't get the shopping you need Amy. Just a thought for you.

Thank you Lindak ....The bruising is coming out ,it's right across his lower back and buttocks , it's very black , he is so lucky the tree didn't break his back .. He still can't walk but he could put a little more weight on his right leg today so thats an improvement ..
The shopping I can cope with because we have a Tesco and a Morrison just up the road , I can pop up when they are not so busy , thank you for thinking of it , it would have been more difficult if they were miles away ! xx

Oh Amy don't know how I missed this, so sorry to hear of Tony's accident, hope he's feeling a little better now the bruisings coming out.

Thank you Kathy , that is kind of you ! he is still in pain but is feeling better in himself , he has been sleeping a lot which I think has helped .. the healing process is bound to take some time ... thank you for showing your concern , it's nice to know that people care .. x

~ glad the bruising is coming out ~ keep putting the Arnica cream on!My daughter is a firm believer that you heal faster whilst asleep so the more you sleep when not well the better!There a worse places to be at the moment!.
Take care and look after yourself! Arlenex

So glad to hear that things are improving for your husband albeit slowly. Better not to rush these things anyway, I think. Hope you still manage to enjoy Christmas and that the new year brings you both health and happiness.

Thanks Arlene The Arnica is working well I can see yellow emerging round the edges of the black bruising , I took a photo of it to show Tony 'cos he can't see himself .... he has never seen bruising that bad over such a big area ..

He is feeling better in himself Gee , I believe he has been in some kind of shock he is getting over that and is kicking himself ( if he could ) for being such an idiot ..... he will be like this for some time I think ....
Our daughter and her husband came over today and did a few heavy jobs that I couldn't do , they stacked some wood up in the front porch so that I don't have to go out in the dark or carry it very far .. Thank you both for being so kind ..x

So pleased your husband is on the mend, with some TLC he should be feeling a great deal better by Christmas....

Glad to hear hubby on the mend.A cautionary tale there Amy....

Thank you DD and BB .... he has a large bruise that is appearing in the area of his heart ! I suspect that is why he has developed a cough since this happened , he probably hurt his ribs in that area .. .. he has deffinately learnt his lesson ................

That does sound painful Amy .. did hubby have a chest X ray ?

Yes he had an x-ray at the hospital BB ... .. I have been giving him cough mixture , I thought he had caught a cold because he lay there shivering for a time ... . the cough is going now that the bruising is coming out . he has other bruises coming in strange places ......... :o)

Oh dear Amy probably in shock for a while too - all those bruises a result of his fall or you been tempted to give him a few .. ? Wish you both well over Christmas and hope neither of you get tempted to do heavy things for fear of being burdensome..sounds like your daughter and family appreciate how you both must be feeling right now.

Glad to hear your hubby's a bit better Amy, hope you have a nice christmas, glad you have your family to look after you both, take care x

Pleased Tony is improving Amy. x