Gardening is DANGEROUS!!!
Well... I decided to finally give the front garden some attention today after waking up and realising that the weather is still nice.
Of course I decided to clean the kitchen windows outside first (procrastination... I know!) but then I made my way to the weeding ... and 2 hours later most of the front garden looked fine-ish. Good enough to get those weed sheets and some stones on it I'd say. Even moved my roses so I can buy a trellis and get them growing nicely.
Then I decided to put down the small fence - really just a "visual" for neighbours who like to walk through our garden and try to use our outdoor tap - kids and adults alike (not for the tap mind), so it's just about 4" high. Had been digging a "trench", got 1 of the 2 fence bits in and was just stamping the earth on our side to compact it when I lost balance and stepped over to the neighbours garden. BAD CHOICE!! As I suddenly realised I had spiked myself in the shin with a branch of a shrub. Neighbours have just broken off the branches and not cut them properly!!! Dangerous for kids (they could fall onto it and kill themselves!!) and VERY PAINFUL for myself.
I just pulled my leg up, saw a triangular hole in the shin and stumbled into the kitchen, took a towel to staunch bleeding and sat down on the floor and phoned DH with the internal phone.
It's quite weird how my "anatomy brain" kicks in when things like that happen! Just applied pressure and felt a bit dizzy so lay back on the floor while DH phoned NHS24. Poor soul, he's always very flustered when things happen to me/I have to get rushed to hospital. :o
We decided against an ambulance as we're living fairly close to the Minor Injury Clinic, and when we arrived there they couldn't do the stitching (a doctor needs to see that and the MIC is only done by nurses) but the nurse cleaned the wound, dressed it and gave me a tetanus booster.
Then we left for the RIE where we waited for 1.5 hours before being seen. During that time my body suddenly withdrew all adrenaline and my leg started hurting/throbbing. The wound itself was about 1.5 - 2 inches, but now I had deferred pain all the way round to my gastrocnemius (that's the big calf muscle)and also higher up and down on the medial side of my tibia.
Got seen, DH very brave came along, but the doc at a look at the wound and decided he has to look inside and clean as well - we assume the blimming spike went about 2.5 inches inside the leg along the tibia up - and he needed to check if there are any splinters etc. So I sent DH out to make sure he's in a fit state to drive me back home.
I only got stitches for an injury when I was about 4/5 and I don't remember. The other stitches I got done while under GA, so this was a new experience for me ... injection in the wound edges and all that. :o The doc managed to pull the skin all the way across the wound, so all went well really... 10 days minimum of stitches in, today/tomorrow and maybe Friday rest with leg up and then we'll see. I hope I am well enough to go to Wishaw with the Junior Wolves and to Inverness with the Seniors on Saturday/Sunday respectively, but we'll see.
Bit disappointed at NHS mind ... no pain killers this time, so I have to make do with Ibuprofen, Paracetamol and an ice pack. Got antibiotics though just in case there's a piece of wood after all. :o
So - front garden is still not 100% (needs a bit more final weeding, the fence placed properly and then the black weed sheet plus some nice stones) done and I ended up with 8-10 stitches and quite a bit of pain. Huh!
Of course I decided to clean the kitchen windows outside first (procrastination... I know!) but then I made my way to the weeding ... and 2 hours later most of the front garden looked fine-ish. Good enough to get those weed sheets and some stones on it I'd say. Even moved my roses so I can buy a trellis and get them growing nicely.
Then I decided to put down the small fence - really just a "visual" for neighbours who like to walk through our garden and try to use our outdoor tap - kids and adults alike (not for the tap mind), so it's just about 4" high. Had been digging a "trench", got 1 of the 2 fence bits in and was just stamping the earth on our side to compact it when I lost balance and stepped over to the neighbours garden. BAD CHOICE!! As I suddenly realised I had spiked myself in the shin with a branch of a shrub. Neighbours have just broken off the branches and not cut them properly!!! Dangerous for kids (they could fall onto it and kill themselves!!) and VERY PAINFUL for myself.
I just pulled my leg up, saw a triangular hole in the shin and stumbled into the kitchen, took a towel to staunch bleeding and sat down on the floor and phoned DH with the internal phone.
It's quite weird how my "anatomy brain" kicks in when things like that happen! Just applied pressure and felt a bit dizzy so lay back on the floor while DH phoned NHS24. Poor soul, he's always very flustered when things happen to me/I have to get rushed to hospital. :o
We decided against an ambulance as we're living fairly close to the Minor Injury Clinic, and when we arrived there they couldn't do the stitching (a doctor needs to see that and the MIC is only done by nurses) but the nurse cleaned the wound, dressed it and gave me a tetanus booster.
Then we left for the RIE where we waited for 1.5 hours before being seen. During that time my body suddenly withdrew all adrenaline and my leg started hurting/throbbing. The wound itself was about 1.5 - 2 inches, but now I had deferred pain all the way round to my gastrocnemius (that's the big calf muscle)and also higher up and down on the medial side of my tibia.
Got seen, DH very brave came along, but the doc at a look at the wound and decided he has to look inside and clean as well - we assume the blimming spike went about 2.5 inches inside the leg along the tibia up - and he needed to check if there are any splinters etc. So I sent DH out to make sure he's in a fit state to drive me back home.
I only got stitches for an injury when I was about 4/5 and I don't remember. The other stitches I got done while under GA, so this was a new experience for me ... injection in the wound edges and all that. :o The doc managed to pull the skin all the way across the wound, so all went well really... 10 days minimum of stitches in, today/tomorrow and maybe Friday rest with leg up and then we'll see. I hope I am well enough to go to Wishaw with the Junior Wolves and to Inverness with the Seniors on Saturday/Sunday respectively, but we'll see.
Bit disappointed at NHS mind ... no pain killers this time, so I have to make do with Ibuprofen, Paracetamol and an ice pack. Got antibiotics though just in case there's a piece of wood after all. :o
So - front garden is still not 100% (needs a bit more final weeding, the fence placed properly and then the black weed sheet plus some nice stones) done and I ended up with 8-10 stitches and quite a bit of pain. Huh!
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