I promise to be more careful in future

Just a quick update, for those expecting to hear from me this week, Mark, Steve and Nick in particular. I had a fall on Wednesday will trying to reroute some cable in the office.

Now this would be funny, had it been on you've been framed, I was heading into the loft space up an expandable ladder, close to the top, the ladder decided it was fed up with expanding and collapsed underneath me. Basically I fell 8 feet hitting my head on the door frame and catching my leg in the ladder.

What happens next is what others have told me is 'man syndrome' - I lay on the floor like a somewhat dishevelled bag of potatoes, checked all limbs were attached, made sure there were no red leaks from my head and decided if the ladder could be put back everything was fine. Ladder went back OK so I figured it was all OK. For the next two days I struggled around getting more and more depressed at my inability to walk properly.

Friday morning I gave in and went to the doctors office, in his usual doom sayer style he thought it was something serious and ordered me to the hospital.

After the obligatory 60 minute wait in A&E a consultant appeared and then all hell broke loose - I heard the phrases DVT, compartment syndrome and IV Antibiotic, then I heard 'cast'. Oh great I thought, I have been hobbling around on a broken leg for two days.

What happened next was a blur, ultrasound scan determined I didn't have a DVT or a compartment problem, xrays couldn't see a break, but then the plaster man appeared - and put a cast on MY ELBOW! Apparently it was now swelling nicely and the 10cm chunk of skin I had removed meant it was in danger of getting seriously infected. They admitted me to hospital and hooked me up to intravenous antibiotics. By this time everything on the left side plus the back of my head was throbbing intensely so they started me on pain killers every 4 hours and morphine every two hours.

After a course on driving crutches they released me 3 days later, laden with painkillers and antibiotics on the promise I would come back and see them again a few days later.

I cannot say how grateful I am to Dr Tabi and Mr Durston for their thorough investigation and to all the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital Staff who do such a great job of looking after people like me, who did such stupid things to end up in their care, their patience and sense of humour is amazing.

Thank you