What an idiot!

Friday 23rd October 2009
Got up early, got showered, managed to find the pink work clothes I had packed for today (a non-uniform day in support of Breast Cancer Research), and all the kids at school had to wear at least some pink. Then off again up the hill on Margaret - Boxmoor was wreathed in mist, and Margaret took exception to the bumpy towpath, and my feet were slipping on the wet pedals. As Margaret's wheels are very small, and she has only three gears I was reduced to pushing her up the considerable hill to the school.

The day was going fine, if a bit busy, then one of my former A level students came in to get his coursework from last year. I looked in all the cupboards, but couldn't find it, we even went to another part of the school to look, but in vain. I said goodbye to him, and promised that I would get the work to him when I found it. I climbed to the second floor of the building and suddenly knew where has work was - I grabbed it and set off down the stairs at a rush to try to get him before he left the school site. I admit, I was running down the stairs, and my foot slipped sideways off the bottom step as I reached the landing at the end of the first flight. There was a loud crack, and I felt something give way in my foot. Fortunately I remained upright. I stood, foot dangling, with the project on the floor, while a group of year 8's came upstairs - "everything alright, Miss?"

"I think I've broken my ankle," was all I could say. I knew I had to get downstairs to Student Services, where there are several trained First Aiders, and they would also have ice. So I set off, hopping down the stairs, holding onto the railings on both sides. Fortunately, the year 8 students had the wit to go and get a member of staff - Sandra, who has just recovered from a broken ankle. "Don't put your foot on the ground!" I could hear her yelling down the stairs after me. The year 8's had also gone down to Student Services, who rounded up another teacher, Ingrid, who met me as I hopped out of the building.

Between them Sandra and Ingrid got me onto a chair, which was a good thing, because at that point I got tunnel vision, everything went grey and I was very close to passing out. I was very confused, and finding thinking difficult, but I was fretting about really minor things - what had happened to Matthew's project? What about my class that afternoon? Sandra and Ingrid were joined by other members of staff at various points, I was vaguely aware of being asked what I wanted to happen to my laptop. All the staff were brilliant - it's good to know that the school's first aid team is so good. Fortunately my injury happened at the beginning of a lesson (one I wasn't due to be teaching), so there were few students about, but I was aware of the occasional one passing and looking to see what the commotion was.

It was decided that they needed to get someone to look at me, and a phone call was made - a paramedic turned up very quickly, took BP, pulse, etc and gave me oxygen, which made thinking a lot easier. Sandra rang Alan on my mobile and told him that it didn't matter if he was in a field somewhere, he had to find a way of getting to Hemel hospital. The paramedic called the ambulance which turned up soon after.

I felt a complete idiot, my ankle was rapidly swelling and was painful, but not agonisingly so, although I know that it is possible to break something without it being very painful. I was loaded onto a trolley and wheeled into the ambulance, and taken off to the 'Urgent Care Centre'.

Fortunately Hemel Hospital wasn't too busy, and I was seen by a doctor quickly, X-rayed soon after and then taken back for the doctor to look again. There was no obvious break (hurray!), but the doctor thought I might have chipped a small piece of bone off. He was going to immobilise my foot and book me into the fracture clinic. Fortunately the consultant was available, and came and prodded my foot. No, he said, torn ligament, take some crutches, don't do too much. Yes, you can go boating, but only steering at first, no pushing lock gates until it is starting to get better.

I was issued with crutches and put into reception to wait for Alan to turn up. Fortunately, instead of coming straight to the hospital he had had the wit to get a train to go home, to get a car, so that he could drive me down to the boat. By the time he arrived I was feeling much better and was marking year 9 work that had gone to the hospital with me in my bag.

Why had I thought it had been a broken ankle? Well I've injured myself before, torn ligaments, etc. But the force and snapping feeling in my ankle was like nothing I'd ever had before, and I've never been close to fainting with an injury before - so I assumed it was fairly serious. Additionally, the paramedic and ambulance crew had thought I'd broken it.

Alan drove me up to the school, to collect Margaret the bike, and I took the opportunity to go into Student Services to say thanks. I hobbled over on my crutches to Ingrid's classroom, where I was also met by the students who had seen me fall on the stairs. I didn't try making it to the top floor of the building to thank Sandra - I'd had more than enough stairs for one day, and I didn't fancy trying to go up on crutches. I'll thank her properly after the break. As I went back to the car one of the students who had passed as I had been being given oxygen came up to me and asked if I was all right.

Photo that Alan took of Apsley Lock - 30 years ago we both worked at John Dickenson factory right by this lock. Now the office where we worked has been replaced by housing, but a small part of the factory remains on the left of this picture.

Alan had left the boat between the Hunton Bridge Locks, he got me near there, and I hobbled up the towpath to the boat. He set off again to take the car home, and then return to the boat using the train and riding Margaret again. David and I set off with the boat, me steering, largely standing on one leg, and him working all the locks. We were just mooring above Iron Bridge Lock in Cassiobury Park, when Alan arrived - about half past five, about five hours since my fall.

I went to bed early.

ALAN'S VIEW OF THE DAY: I was boating along with David on a near perfect autumn day, we had deliberately started a bit late, as we thought that we were in no rush to get to Cassiobury Park to meet Cath in the evening. We had started sharing locks with a second boat, and were making nice steady progress, when my phone rang. I could see it was Cath's mobile calling, but a bit surprised when it was clearly not Cath using it. Sandra fairly quickly informed me that Cath had a suspected broken ankle, and that I would need to come to Hemel urgently. She then told me that three paramedics were in attendance, but I couldn't actually speak to Cath who had an oxygen mask on. Somehow my day took on a different perspective. Sandra was unaware that I was on a narrowboat, and that you couldn't quickly speed back to somewhere you left several hours ago. She did however say that I could now speak to Cath, but the connection was lost shortly after I started.

We explained the situation to the other boat's crew and, rather amusingly the lady said, "it might be wide enough to turn around here".

After considering options I decided walking to Kings Langley station would likely get me back fastest, but realised whether Cath was detained in hospital, or discharged, other than offering support I could do little without a car. I therefore decided to train and taxi home, and was nearly off the train when Cath called to say that she hadn't broken the ankle, and that she was walking with crutches - good decision!

Fairly quickly I collected Cath, we went and picked up 'Margaret' and took Cath to the boat. I then drove home with the bike, which I then used to get back to the train, finally returning to the boat just about as they were mooring, and night was falling.

I somehow managed to make some parts of the journey on foot, on bike, by car, by train, and by boat (no helicopter available).

A bizarre day, from my perspective, but a remarkably good outcome after the original news.

Amazingly, given the stress, I had even had the wit to purchase a cheap day return ticket on the train!
Locks: 14, Miles: 6.8
Total locks: 32, Total Miles: 13.5