Well that was a bit of a surprise

 

My apologies for my absence from this blog for the last week, but there turned out to be a reason:

This is another story where I found out that I had an illness that I had never even heard of. The first one was Myeloma where when the doctor said 'You may have myeloma' I was like 'WTF is Myeloma'

This second illness involved a bike crash. Nearly two weeks ago I had a fairly wipe-out style crash at about 15mph in Woodbridge. It was nobody's fault but my own (wet pedals, wet shoes) but I hit the ground hard with elbow, shoulder, hip and helmet (for which immense gratitude that it was not my skull). And thence, I swore profusely - which told me I probably didn't have concussion - and twisted my handlebars back to the correct position before diverting from my destination cafe to a destination GP's surgery, who eventually patched me up and confirmed 'no fractures'.

The next day I was sore but no more than expected. My shoulder was the worst but got better over about four days. The big 'street pizza' on my elbow improved and scabbed and did all the things it should do. In fact I even cycled 60 miles on the day after the crash, which should have given me some warning that it wasn't quite right when I started to get a pain in my hip six days after the crash. 

It was odd that the part of my leg that hadn't really hurt did start to hurt. Then eventually became the part that hurt most, and that it continued even after I had been to the GP to check. He concluded that it was likely the follow on from the impact, and I started on some big painkillers. But as the painkillers didn't seem to be having the slightest impact and in fact the pain was spreading down my leg (with some heat and redness) I realised I should go back to the GP, which I did on Monday morning.

She looked at it, felt it, checked its appearance and said "I don't think it's a bruise at all, it's an infection". I didn't know you could get that, but apparently it is reasonable common, and serious if left untreated. I had been assuming it was something else for about six days, and by the time she diagnosed it, it went from my hip nearly down to my ankle. Oops. She was quite calm and doctorly, but when she said the three changes upon which I should phone 999 or get to A&E, I realised this was not such a nice thing. My sister Anna arrived to look after me, just as the first of those things happened, a spike in my temperature, so off to A&E she took me. By the time we got there I needed a wheelchair to move at all. 

The consultant explained that what I had was 'cellulitis', an infection of the underlying skin layers, and it had started in a haematoma (a bruise under the surface, presumably over my hip joint), where a pool of blood had attracted my body's natural bacteria into a little feeding frenzy, which party they carried on down my leg. It was touch and go whether they would take me in for IV antibiotics, but she explained that one influencing factor was a 20-hour wait for beds. So, with the promise that I would come back in if things worsened, I went off home with a doubled dose of antibiotics.

And now the sisters have changed shift and Mary and Cathrine have taken over from Anna, and I am up in bed like Mr Sickie, with my red leg raised and loads of water by my side. Feeling a bit better now, but a few more days to be back up and moving properly.

And the picture at the top is tonight's view of my shiny and swollen calf. Yuck.