An update on Skry

So much for, "There's nothing broken, you can go". Skry got a call this morning from the doctor in Hanmer Springs, saying that his x-ray had been re-examined and there was a chance he had a crushed vertabra, so he had to go and be re-examined. First of all we went at about noon to the 24 hour clinic where he was x-rayed yesterday, so they could refer him to the hospital if necessary. Two hours later, having finally got the right person to review the x-ray, we were told that there was still some doubt and he would be treated as if he had a broken neck. This involved an extremely uncomfortable neck brace, Skry lying flat on his back, being taken by ambulance to the hospital, and lying on a trolley in the corridor for another few hours. Obviously we were both bored stupid, but at least I was able to see around me, read the extremely dated magazines (some from 1992!) and watch other patients coming and going. Poor Skry could see nothing but the ceiling, and wasn't allowed to sit up, or eat or drink anything.

By 7.45pm we had finally been seen by a doctor, and were waiting for him to finally clear the x-ray and send us home. Another half hour later, he returned to say that there was no consultant available to clear the x-ray and so Skry had to stay in overnight in order to get a CT scan tomorrow. All this even though every doctor we saw was 99% sure that nothing was wrong. Neither of us had eaten anything since breakfast, and Skry hadn't been allowed to drink anything until the doctor saw him, and of course the hospital canteen closes at 7.30pm. The poor guy had to eat vending machine junk for his dinner as there was no proper food available at all. I left him just after he was transferred to a ward, lying on his bed looking ready to be bored stupid for another 12 hours at least. I hope the batteries in the Nintendo DS lasted for a while!