Birmingham

It was time for another trip in an ambulance. Apparently they wanted to fly me to the other hospital in a helicopter but there was no heli-pad at the Royal Orthopaedic - duh! So they put me on an extra flat extra hard board and drove me to B'ham. The actual injury to my spine didn't really hurt at all, but the lump on the back of my head which showed no signs of going down in the three days since the accident was hardly tolerable. The 40min ride was pretty bumpy [why don't they make ambulances smooth?] and by the time we got there I couln't help but urge them to get my off the board and onto a bed where the insufferable pain in the back of my head would chill out. "sorry, but could you just put me onto a bed?" as we waited in the hallway for them to make the bed. "any bed, I really dont mind if its not got sheets for now, pleeeeease?"

After a few more minutes of this they wheeled me into my own little room and unloaded me onto a beautifuly squishy bed. Mmmmmm. Thats when I met Fit-Doctor-Nurse guy - again, Mmmmm :P.
Fit-Doctor-Nurse guy looked to manly to be a nurse...so I decided that he was a Dr/nurse. Anyway, he was lovely and very caring. I felt so much better at this hospital. I had my own room, nice staff around me and most importantly things didnt seem to drag as much as they did in the last place.
A real sweet and very smiley asian Dr called Sam was the one who told me what course of action was to be taken. After a few hrs or not being sure whether I was going to need an opperation or a halo he let me know that it was to be a halo. YESSS!!!!!
You'll be in it for 3 months
I'LL BE IN IT FOR HOW LONG?!
upto 3 months. ... :/
And within just another hour or so, I was being wheeled into the room where they were going to fit it. The room was fairly small with Disney pictures all over the walls and full of Drs wearing silly little blue hats that tied under their chins. If I hadnt been so nervous, I would have laughed my head off at this queer scene.

The Fitting
This was not the most pleasant of experiances.The local anesthetic shots stung like a bitch which didnt seem very fair. It was wierd having 4 Dr.s and 2 nurses crowded round me but to start with it felt kind of reassuring that I had so many people watching over me. It was when they all started to squabble that I got a bit unnerved. "Is it straight?"..."urmmm does it look straight to you? You're the one in the middle"..."pass me the scalple...NOW"..."I'll just make this cut a bit bigger...oops"
WHAT DO YOU MEAN OOPS?!
[I later realised from the long scab behind my ear that he had slipped ..good one!!]
After lots of twisting and skull crunching sounds, the halo was fitted. The head Doc asked me if I could open and close my eyes because sometimes if the front pins are in a certain place, you cant close your eyes and they have to refit it. =O luckily that wasnt the case.

They told me I was now alowed to sit up. So i tried. HOLY CRAP IM PARALYSED. No matter how hard I tried to lift my body for the first time in 3 days, it wouldnt budge. The effort made me feel sick so I asked the slightly dosy man who was the only person left in the room if he could maybe find me a sick bowl. Never rely on a dosy man in times of urgent need.
I sat up...the force of me being sick left me no choice. It was gross. My stomach muscles hurt so much from the strain, and the worst part of it was that it went all down the synthetic sheep skin vest which I couldnt get wet and therefore couldnt wash. Crap.