14 April 2013 was a strange kind of day. It began with me worrying about my knees. They were really achy after my long Moonwalk training walk the day before and I was more than a little concerned that I’d picked up an injury that could jeopardise the Moonwalk. The day ended with an injury worry of a completely different kind.
14 April 2013
After the walk on Friday my calves and knees ached. That’s two long walks in a row. I’m not sure why it’s happening and it’s more than a little worrying. In the past it’s always been my quads burning and protesting on the last miles of a long walk then aching later. Maybe they’re getting stronger, who knows? The next morning, when I eventually got up, all my limbs were back to normal, no aches and pains, although I did discover a blister on my little toe I had no idea about. Still it doesn’t hurt so that’s fine, but I think I need some new walking socks because all of mine seem to be getting a bit worn, I have no idea why!
You’d never have thought I almost walked a marathon until I was on my way up the Big Hill to get supplies. Typically it was raining again so I was all wrapped up in the padded coat with my hood pulled up wondering what happened to the sun. The Big Hill is a calf killer at the best of times and today my calves were saying ‘Woah! What are you doing? Give us a rest,” and my knees were hurting. Still, I made it up there, albeit a bit slower than normal.
Commando and CJ went off to the football leaving me to have a chilled recovery day. The relaxation and the post match Chinese takeaway (I know but I had a massive calorie bank after the twenty four miles and hardly eating on Friday) were somewhat overshadowed when the phone rang late in the evening, just as we were thinking about going to bed. Phone calls after ten o’clock at night are rarely good news right? We only use our landline for the broadband and hardly anyone has our number. We don’t make calls and, half the time, we don’t answer it because everyone who knows us rings on our mobiles. Usually it’s someone trying to sell us something. Occasionally, if I happen to be standing right next to it, I’ll pick it up. Last week I had three calls from India telling me I could claim back PPI payments. Hmm, don’t have any loans or payment protection so I doubt it.
Anyhow, we exchanged worried looks and Commando picked it up because he was sat right next to it. There was no one there. “Probably one of those automatic dialers,” I said. When it rang again a few minutes later we left it to go to answer phone and sat listening to the outgoing message being played. Usually this is followed by the sound of the phone being put down by whoever is trying to con us. Last night there was a very faint voice saying “I think I’ve broken my leg.” It sounded a bit like Commando Senior. We all looked at each other. CJ, who was sitting on the other side of the phone, snatched it up but it was too late it had cut off.
Then pandemonium broke out. Commando tried to call back but no one answered. Then he couldn’t find his mobile to try on that. Everyone was talking at once. Someone kept saying ‘shit,’ it may have been me. Eventually Commando found his mobile and got through to his dad. He’d had a fall and was pretty sure he’d broken something, possibly more than one thing and we’re not talking crockery here.
At this point in the evening Commando had had a bath and had been lounging around in his dressing gown and underpants. He was talking on the phone whilst simultaneously trying to put trousers on. In any other circumstances it would have been comical. He put the phone down eventually then, when he was looking for the car keys, stopped dead and said. “I’ve been drinking, I can’t drive.” It was true, we’d both had a couple of tots of rum in our cocoa, not nice little measured ones, just a few glugs from the bottle, like you do. Chances are he was under the limit but you can’t take chances like that, especially on a Saturday night. Commando never drinks and drives, ever!
I picked up my mobile to try to find a taxi number but Commando had a better idea. “Go next door and see if Jay has had a drink.” So I dashed out into the rain and hammered on Jay’s door, probably a little harder than I should. Poor Jan sounded a little worried as she called out “Who is it?” but, once I’d explained the situation Jay picked up his car keys and was following me up the path in no time. I’ll have to apologise later because I’m pretty sure I woke their little girl, Millie, up too.
Bless Jay’s heart, he even came back and knocked the door to say he’d drive Commando up to the hospital if necessary. Commando was on the phone to me at the time, telling me he was pretty sure his dad had broken his wrist and possibly his hip and an ambulance was on the way. He was going in the ambulance so Jay’s kind offer wasn’t needed.
A little bit of a chocolate fest followed. Chocolate will get you through times of stress and stress is often caused by times of no chocolate. Fact! I’d bought a bar of fancy hazelnut chocolate as a treat, intending to have a few squares now and then. Ok, you’re rolling your eyes now I know but I can do that. For over a year I kept bars of dark fruit and nut hidden in the cupboard and had four squares, no more, some nights for a treat. I’m not totally out of controll around the stuff, I just haven’t had any in the house for a long time. Earlier in the evening I’d opened the chocolate and had two squares, Commando had had a couple too. The bar was on the coffee table and I scoffed the rest if it, most of a one hundred and fifty gram bar. Guess that takes care of the calorie bank then.
Of course I should have gone to bed while Commando was taking care of things at the hospital but, somehow, I couldn’t even think about sleeping. So I sat and waited, watching some fly on the wall TV thing following English police cars round. Lots of drunken people having fights and other people driving like idiots, a few minor car accidents where people clutched their necks and muttered about whiplash. Still it passed the time.
Commando came in at about two thirty. It turns out Commando Senior has broken his hip badly, as if there is any other way to break your hip really, and will be staying in hospital for a while. They said he’d probably have to have a hip replacement. I guess that’s one way to get one without being on a waiting list for decades. We eventually went to bed somewhere around three thirty.
Obviously today has been mainly about wandering around in a daze of tiredness with a bit of phoning round to inform people thrown in. I am way to old to stay up half the night. They were operating this morning so there wasn’t much we could do but wait. Commando went down to pick up some essentials, pj’s, slippers, dressing gown, toiletries, that kind of thing and, this afternoon we went over to the hospital to visit.
In the end they didn’t have to do the hip replacement, so I won’t be able to make jokes about him being the bionic man. He must have tougher bones than they thought but now he has half a ton of metal holding him together so airport security should be fun. We didn’t stay too long because he was still pretty groggy from all the anesthetic and kept nodding off. Then again, perhaps we’re just boring. They say he will be in there for about ten days while he has physio and they make sure everything is healing properly so I imagine there will be a few more trips to Southampton General Hospital over the next couple of weeks. Still they do have a Costa in the foyer so maybe I’ll add it to my walking routes.
