Day 311: Liverpool put me back together again (the aftermath of the squishing)

I vaguely recall the lorry driver asking somebody if they thought he should reverse off me. I think at the time I thought that would be a smashing idea. Though I hoped he was quite accurate in his reversing because bits of me were between wheels and it was possible that in reversing off one bit he might end up on another bit.

I vaguely recall the ambulance men, when I was lying in the back of the ambulance, muttering the word, ‘Amputation…’

This did not fill me with joy. I didn’t really know what injuries I had sustained, but I knew that one of my arms and one of my legs may have been injured and what are you supposed to think when you hear someone say, ‘Amputation…’?

The hospital was just opposite the faculty so it only took a couple of minutes to get me into A&E. I have absolutely no recollection of anything until a few hours later. I was in a hospital bed and I had been given a lot of morphine. Somebody told me to try to get some sleep. I have no idea who it was. It may have been my Mum and Dad. It may have been one of my student friends. It may have been a nurse. 

I distinctly remember this image featuring in my morphine induced dreams, my apparently slightly pervy morphine induced dreams… In retrospect I was amazed at how good the pain relief was. That night I slept on my front with my face pressed into the pillow. I didn’t sleep like that again for another month because the pain from my injuries wouldn’t let me.

The next day I was taken into surgery and had the tips of two of my toes amputated. It was just my toes the ambulance men were talking about! Hoorah. They had been crushed under the wheel. The injuries to my arm were just (just!) nasty burns that had stripped the skin off the inside of my upper arm and forearm.

The toe amputation was done under local anaesthetic. When the local anaesthetic was administered, the anaesthetist kept asking me if I could feel anything. I am a wimp. Long after I couldn’t feel them poking my toes I kept saying, ‘Yes, can definitely feel that. And that. Yes, and that. Just give me more. And that. And that. Erm, yes, and that.’ As the anaesthesia started to spread numbness all the way up my body I eventually said, ‘Ok, I think we are ready to go!’

At this point the nurse told me, that the operation was all over!

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My family visited – they brought me books and bottle of orange juice (and probably other things, but that’s all I remember). Cath Hardy and Andy Hamill Stewart visited (just after I came back from surgery). I guess that other people from my year also visited because I remember at least one person telling me that they knew it was me under the lorry because they recognised my bright orange Karrimor rucksack. I have no recollection of who visited me - I was still doped up on drugs. I was given a nice card (which I still have) signed by everybody and hoping that I got well soon. Camille Vaillant visited.

This is the only picture I can find of Camille Vaillant - a bizarre shot of the back of her head in a university publication. Obviously publicity shy!

Camille was one of our lecturers. She visited to tell me not to worry about the upcoming exams. She knew that I would have done well and wouldn’t expect me to sit the exam, (hoorah – Head and Neck was one of the hardest sections!) and I’d be tested on it in the end of year exams anyway (hooroo!) I also had a biochemistry exam coming up which I would have to sit, but only once I had recovered, and the biochemistry department were going to set new questions for me as everybody else would already have sat the exam (the biochemistry department were very lazy and did not set me new questions and as a result I got the highest mark in the year – I would like to point out that I really loved biochemistry anyway (I am very sad) and was slightly disappointed that my high score was interpreted by many as a sign that I had cheated and found out what the questions were)

I was in the hospital for four days. It was a nice little ward with 4 beds and a nice view across to the Biochemistry building. Diagonally opposite me was a very cheerful man who had just had both of his legs amputated. And opposite me was an older guy - I can’t remember exactly what was wrong with him. But for the time that we were both there, he was bedbound and had to use bedpans when he went to the toilet.

As did I…