My first NHS experience

Anyone that knows me knows that I can be an absolute klutz. And often my clumsiness results in fun and interesting injuries. There was the twisted knee from the bumper car, the broken finger on the dive boat, the stress fracture in my toe while cooking...the list goes on. It's rather impressive that I've really only broken one bone (the toe doesn't count since the break didn't show up on x-ray), and only one set of stitches (child birth related don't count). Usually I manage soft tissue damage and that's it. All this to say I'm accident prone.I have not yet registered with NHS. It didn't seem like a priority since Maggie and I are so healthy in general. We don't need a doctor, right? Totally forgot the accident prone thing. Duh!

So last night, after picking Mom and Dad at the airport (yay!) we all went to Rob's office family Christmas party. There were bouncy castles for the kids, there was food, there was wine and beer, there was good company and good cheer. All in all it was a fun evening. The time came to head home and put Maggie (and Oma and Opa) to bed and off we started. Then Rob declared that he had something cool to show us.  Off we went to look. Somewhere along the hallway (painted concrete floors...) I stepped wrong and my shoe slid, my foot went out, and Maggie and I went flying. I twisted to try to keep her from getting hurt (she's perfectly fine...scared more than anything), my knee and hand hit the floor, and something went POP.

The next thing I know I'm being treated by a former combat medic who essentially refused to do much other than call the base EMS. Security showed up, EMS showed up, everyone still at the party showed up...it was terribly embarrassing. There was paperwork. It's a bit of a pain blur. EMS decided that they could do nothing but give me a blanket to support my arm (I totally bonded with that blanket!) and send me off to A&E (accident and emergency). So Rob took the family home (we were about  5 minutes from home) while the last few party stragglers kept me company till he came back.  It's amazing how concerned people can be when your shoulder is sitting at around nipple level. Anyway, Rob came back and helped me into the car and off we went to the hospital.

We walked into A&E at 10pm, Rob filled out the admissions paperwork for me while I sat in a chair and cried like a little girl. I was in a wheelchair headed to xray a few minutes later. The mean, horrible (yet really sweet and pleasant) xray tech took my blanket away, causing the pain to shoot off the charts. Love that blanket! Then back to the front desk to wait for 5 or so minutes for the doc to come for us. He examined me (best line: "Hmm, that's the end of your humerus. That shouldn't be there. I need to check your xrays."). Sure enough (big shock here!) my shoulder was dislocated. Most painful thing I've experienced. Ever. Childbirth was a walk in the park in comparison. Seriously ow! To add to my joy, I'm allergic to the really good pain meds. So off we went to get an IV set up and start pushing drugs that I can take and gets things back where they're supposed to be. I got to see the xrays (I asked). Freaking cool! Bones really should not look like that! Anyway, there were drugs pushed. One of them was a sedative that contained an amnesiac. I remember the doc pushing the drug and joking about doing nursey things, and I remember being wheeled into another room. I was apparently conscious. I'm told it looked really cool when they set the arm. The doc told one of the nurses that it was the loudest pop he'd heard doing one of those. I'm kinda sorry I don't remember since it sounds pretty epic. Instant pain relief! Then back to xray, back for a final exam by the doc, and that was it. I have an appointment at the fracture clinic on Monday. Total elapsed from the time we walked in to the time we left: 3 hours. The staff were phenomenal. I have nothing but praise for the NHS. Fast, efficient, and very friendly.

I should register with NHS.

Books and birds and other things

It's been a busy and interesting week around Pashlers. A lot of waiting, and a lot of flurries of activity. First we had Maggie seeing the advent calendar for the first time this year. She literally squeals every time she goes into the dining room and sees it.

Apparently my fears about letting her down with an all chocolate advent were unfounded. Let the month of the wired two year old begin! *grin*

Aside from chocolate and vibrating babies, it's been a week of waiting, deliveries, snow, and Thursday  morning adventures. Last week we were supposed to receive a shipment of wine in preparation for the holidays. I was promised next day delivery, which meant it should have been here last Thursday. The digital box for the TV was supposed to be here the same day. So Maggie and I waiting. And waited. And waiting some more. I watched a delivery van drive by a couple times but that was it. Friday we waited some more. When the mail came in the early afternoon there was a letter from the courier service in question. They were holding a parcel for us since they had "insufficient address information". Please call. Hmm... So I called. They had my BT delivery (TV box) but the driver couldn't find us. There are maybe 40 houses in the entire village. There is one corner. We're on it. You can't miss us. I thought. I was clearly wrong. Anyway, the box arrived on Monday, when we discovered that our TV is not actually compatible with British digital stuff. So TV shopping we shall go. Yay? The wine did not show up Friday. I called the company, who tracked it down and gave the delivery company (the same one with the TV box) explicit directions to the house. The wine did not come on Monday. Tuesday our furniture arrived from two different companies. Neither had a problem finding us. First was our bedroom furniture and mirror from Indigo Furniture. I can't say enough good about this company, and they will get their very own blog post because they are just that awesome. Seriously. If you're in the UK and need furniture, check them out!

                                                

I'll post pics of the bedroom furniture in a separate post (once we get the room set up and tidy...), but that's the mirror we got. Sorry about the flash. You can see how massive it is. I got it because it's gorgeous and I figured it could hang in the hallway or something. I really ought to have checked the dimensions...it's a tad larger than anticipated. I think it's going in lounge 1 on the wall to be a feature since anything less would be an insult.

The next delivery was of our sofas and a bed for Andy's room. No pics of the bed. It's a bed. Nothing exciting. The sofas, however, are gorgeous. Particularly since we got them both, and the bed, for less than 700 pounds. They're comfy, they fit in the room, and they don't look terrible with the tables we got with our dining room furniture. I finally have grown up furniture! Bye bye, student days! Finally! Tuesday was a good day. Still no wine, though. Then the mail came. Along with a box of Christmas gifts from Mom and Dad (which is sitting unopened in their room, waiting for them to arrive next week. Don't worry, Mom, we didn't snoop.) was another letter from the courier service. We have your box and can't find you. Please call. Again. So I called and gave the guy explicit directions and pointed out that we'd received a delivery from them on Monday, so the driver really must know where we are by now. He sounded a little sheepish and promised that it would be sent out the next day. Again. With explicit directions for the driver. Again. Arrrgh!

Wednesday (yesterday) that's what we woke up to. It's still there. Not a big deal compared to what we're used to having just moved from Ottawa, but still. Snow?! In England? Huh. And I laughed when the Indigo furniture delivery guy quipped that we were due for snow soon. The day before. That'll teach me. Good thing we brought our snow shovel with us! A month of sprinklings like this and there *might* be enough to warrant pulling it out. Maybe. Anyway, while watching the snow out the window I noticed a white van that kept driving up to the house and sitting for a few minutes before driving away. I think it did that 3 times. Finally, just when I was starting to think someone was casing the place, the driver got out and came up to the door. Turns out it was our new slats for the new bed (see the Indigo post, coming soon...). FedEx, apparently, does not use FedEx trucks out here. The driver was not impressed. We are apparently "very difficult" to find and should have a sign or something. He sat right in front of the gate. Repeatedly. I think he ultimately went down to the pub to ask where we are or something. So I told him I'd talk to the landlady about a sign or something and he left, muttering under his breath in something that sounded very Slavic. A little while later another white van pulled up and another guy got out. I swear he could have been the FedEx guy's twin. Same Slavic muttering, same grim frown, same look of annoyance. He was further unimpressed by how heavy the box he was delivery was. Hallelujah! My wine finally found me! Go figure, 15 bottles of wine are heavy. That was yesterday. I have wine, I have all the parts for our bed, and we now have 2 more courier companies that can, in theory, find us. Maybe. Seriously, there's one corner in the village. We're on it. The house is big. And white. It stands out like a sore thumb. Yet they can't find us even with explicit directions?! Hmm...

That brings us to today. That was the view out our window shortly after 11. See that green truck? That is the book truck, which is probably Maggie's favourite truck. Ever. She's been pestering me about it for days, and practically vibrated when she saw it pull up. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Cambridgeshire mobile library. It stops there every month, grants  us access to the entire Cambridgeshire library system, and will do special book deliveries for us if we request them either at a branch or online. It's absolutely free and grants Maggie and I each 12 books a month. It's a truck full of books (seriously, wall to wall books inside that sucker!) that Maggie gets to go inside. There's a kind gentleman librarian who will help out, and who lets us take up to 24 books a month. And it stops just outside our house. How cool is that? I think it's awesome. Maggie is pretty sure I'm understating things. It is by far the coolest thing she's every experienced. It's a truck. Full of books. That she gets to go inside. And, best of all, it's GREEN! That was how our morning started. Maggie was in seventh heaven as we walked home with a bag full of books. Then, as we walked past the greenhouse, I noticed a rather frantic little brown bird inside. Uhoh. The poor little guy kept flying into the various windows trying to get out. I think he slipped in through the open louver windows and couldn't figure out how to get out. Maggie and I went in with the intention of shooing the little guy out to no avail. He kept divebombing us and then flying into a window, missing the open door by inches over and over. Finally the poor little guy perched on the wall, clearly exhausted and terrified. He let me catch him and perched on my hand while I carried him outside. He sat on my hand and let Maggie and I pet him before hopping off into one of the bushes to recover. Maggie is now on cloud nine. Not only did she get to go on the book truck, but she got to pet a bird. So incredibly cool! I'll head outside in a little while to make sure he's moved on and isn't too hurt (he seemed okay when we left him, just really tired and freaked out).

All in all this week was a win. Some downs (my spinning wheel's drive arm/axle snapped last night), but mostly ups. And hey, if things really start getting me down I now have 15 more bottles of wine in the house, so things are definitely coming out in the win column for that reason alone! *grin* Now to run around like a maniac to get the house ready for guests next week. Wish me luck!