Friday started out well, in Arles seeing the sights and then driving towards Carcassonne to a small village hotel where I had booked for the night. It ended in an over 4 hour stay at Carcassonne Hospital accident and emergency clinic!
The small hotel was alongside the Canal du Midi so after a long drive, a walk was tempting. Down the stairs I went to get my shoes from the car, well that was the plan. Instead down the stairs I went slipping in my socks, down several steps actually. I landed hard, on my left arm, on the marble steps. Oh did I mention it was a marble staircase? Unfortunately as I went down in a heap, I caught my thumb nail on the edge of a step and ripped it half off. It bled and went black, not a good sign. I was in a state of shock of course, but not as shocked as the poor hoteliers!
Checking everything out, I could feel that my arm was a bit sore. The sore thumb kind of took over at first. Those helping took one look at my arm, luckily I couldn't see it, and sent me to the village doctor who sent me along to the hospital, first diagnosis: Broken!
I waited to be x-rayed holding my poor throbbing thumb up in a pashmina sling, yes they are a multipurpose garment. X-rays done, we waited for the doctor to read them. By this time it was late and of course I was hungry. Alas it took longer still!
Meanwhile, Muzz filled his time in by texting the kids, very mean! He got the expected replies; 'tell her to take a cup of harden the (bad swear word) up' and 'it took you two weeks of traveling to push her down some stairs'. Yes, it's true my sons love me dearly!
The doctor came back and said it wasn't broken. He scratched his head and said in lovely broken English that he couldn't believe how it hadn't broken given the bruising etc. What he didn't realise is that when it comes to bones, I am superwoman. When I got back to NZ and had the x-ray checked, my kinesiologist commented on how thick my bones were. Normal people have bones that break, this chick has bones that bend, too tough to break!
The doctor also had to drill a hole or two in my thumb nail to release the blood that was causing the throbbing. I had been through this before so knew the drill, if you'll excuse the pun. Fortunately the first hole released some blood, unfortunately the second was drilled into healthy tissue.....mmmmm that hurt. But wait there's more. Did I mention the doc was young and wouldn't have been out of place on ER? No, well he decided to put a sling on me, quite a nice experience really given the circumstances. We got back to the hotel very late.
In the morning I felt very sheepish sitting at the breakfast table all slung up with Muzz having to butter my toast and pour my tea. The hoteliers came to check on me and the lovely cuddly chef gave me some sweets for being brave. What I didn't find out until later was that the joke he and Muzz were laughing about was my state of intoxication at the time I fell down the stairs, I hadn't been drinking....really!
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