Bruised

It’s a couple days since I had my little bike accident and I think today was worse than yesterday. Yesterday I was a bit sore and uncomfortable but I didn’t feel the aches and pains. This morning I had the aches and pains. Just after my last post, I found the neck soreness was getting worse much faster than I liked. I was pretty sure it was just muscle and nerve stuff happening but I was a bit nervous about it so called the Health Direct line…which, as usual, said to go to the hospital. They say that for almost everything. I think there has been one instance when they didn’t tell me…actually two…Once was when I had a centipede bite, I think. Last time I called was when Lego Lover had the rash breaking out everywhere and I was allowed to wait until the next morning.

I managed to wake the Scientist in the worst part of his sleep cycle. There was very little traffic on the way to the hospital but there were middle of the night roadworks going on closer to our destination. It was a rather bewildering journey through the detours and orange lane divider thingies…used to be cones but these are much more upright. The parking lot seemed pretty quiet when we arrived. This could have been deceptive like the last visit we had. But fortunately the waiting area in triage was all but empty. I got in and was seen pretty quickly by a junior medical officer. The nurse came and asked the usual questions and then took my blood pressure as the doctor came in. My blood pressure was 160/95 or thereabouts, which is very high for me. The doctor said it was probably the stress of being there…fair enough. After some poking and prodding and heaps of questions it was determined that I was okay. Aside from soreness, I had felt okay up to that point…but then I started to feel a bit sick and woozy so the doctor had me lie down instead of sitting on the bed. At the time I thought perhaps it was hunger as it had been many hours since I’d eaten much of anything.

The doctor went away to check with the senior medical officer and to write a letter for my gp in the event I needed follow-up. Meanwhile the nurse came to do a proper clean of the graze that runs from my elbow halfway down to my wrist. I obviously missed a few spots of dirt when cleaning. It stung rather badly but I ended up with a bandage that covered the entire area, unlike what we concocted here at home. It seemed it was going to continue to sting and throb through the night but it did eventually ease.

About an hour after we had arrived, we were on our way home. By that time, the waiting room was a bit busier but still pretty quiet. When we got home, I checked my blood glucose and it wasn’t low at all. When it goes low enough the body will kick in so that it rises…Hard to know about that. I also checked my blood pressure because the high readings were of concern to me. My blood pressure was back to being pretty low at 100/60, I think. I checked it again to be sure and it was the same. So my theory on the wooziness is perhaps my blood pressure had a sudden drop, which made me feel ill. It’s kind of curious they didn’t check it a second time at the hospital, especially seeing they had left the cuff on my arm the whole time I was there.

I’ve taken it easy the past couple of day and this afternoon I had a headache so took some ibuprofen and went to lie down for awhile. I ended up dozing off and napping off and on for a couple of hours. I hadn’t expected that today because I’d gone to bed reasonably early last night. But I think my sleep was rather broken due to waking often due to discomfort from both the bruises and being overly warm. Last night the temperature was cool enough that the air conditioner hardly came on. But the humidity was high enough to make it feel unbearably warm at times. I’m hoping to be a bit more active tomorrow. Unlike yesterday, the aches and pains don’t seem as bad tonight so I’m hoping that’s a good sign.