Burst Fracture:
A burst fracture is a very serious form of compression fracture. In this type of fracture the bone is shattered from the injury. Bone fragments may pierce the spinal cord. The injury usually occurs from a downward or upward force along the spine. Burst fractures often result in serious spinal cord injury.

...=O

How Long To Go?

We landed back in the UK on Christmas eve. I was due a weekly check-up and so gave Granger a ring like he told me to. This was the strangest check-up in the history of check-ups...



Picutre the scene...

It was freezing, snow everywhere. On my way back from the airport... pulled over in a busy layby off the moterway... there was a red mazda...out stepped my consultant...I aproached him...greeted him...and he tighened my screws there and then - much to the confusion of the fellow layby-ers.
Check-up ended. Continued on my journey home.

...Odd.

But although this check-up was fairly strange, it brougt with it good news. Granger has told me that I should make an appointment for the first week in January, where he would take an X-ray and if everything was going well - take the damned thing offfff!!!!!

Its amazing how the prescribed time in tho halo whittled itself down, from 3 months, to 2 months, to only a month and a half! I felt so lucky when I thought about how much worse it could have been.

A-level exams were looming in my direction. Biology, Chemistry and Geography. The teachers sort of assumed that I wouldn't be doing them due to my predicament but since I was on a roll and doing pretty much anything else, I thought that I might as well give them a shot. Besides, there was every possibility that I would be out of the halo by then!

Anyway... neadless to say, i was very excited (about the halo removel - not the exams, obviously!) and was actually counting down the days. At the same time, I tried not to get my hopes up incase the X-rays were no good and Granger turned around and said to me "Sorry Mils, its gonna be another 3 months in the halo mate!" ... that would suck.

Living With The Cage

The first few days, I just tried to get used to wearing the cage. I got tired really easily due to a mix of it being a fair bit of extra and awkward weight I was now carrying around with me and the fact that sleeping wasnt great. At this point I manage to sleep on LOADS of pillows so Im not flat, with a rolled-up towel behind my neck for support. I have to lie dead still on my back tho which sucks because I tend to sleep on my side and move about a bit.

After about two days of doing nothing but sit on my arse and make up for the days I went without food, I decided it was time to get back into things - so I went to school for half a day to set the rumours straight (ie: Millie is paralysed, Millie is in a coma, Millie won't be back at school for three months etc)

Everyone was amazed that I was back so soon. The teachers didnt know what to do with me and my friends took the role of being body guards.

The best bit to come out of going back to school had to be the reactions of the little kids, especially the 11yr old boys.

At one point I was standing outside a classroom full of said boys at the top of the stairs waiting for their lesson to finish. They started to pour out, not noticing me at first, and the gazing at me in wonderment...actually going down the stairs backwards so they could look at me for a bit longer. After the main bulk was gone, a tiny kid came shuffeling out, looking at his feet. When he glanced up and saw me, he literally stood there GAPING for full on ages. So in the end I just said "I can still SEE, you know!" and he scurried away. My friends found it hilarious.

Everything got back up to speed quite swiftly. I was going into school for almost full days and getting used to the scaffolding.

My weekly check-ups with Granger were going well...he said the pin-sites looked lovely (Mmm, yeh - lovely scabby holes in my head. Nice) and that becaus I was young, my neck should heal quite quickly. Before I knew it, I want going to be in the halo for three months but more like two.
The check up before my supposed holiday to Florida reveled that not only could I deffinatly go on my vacction, but that I could be getting the cage off a couple of weeks later!!
Granger also said that I got the injury from landing on my head, which compressed my spine - causing it to crack...which probably ment that I had fractured my skull too. That explained why my head still hurt a month after I fell!!

So I went to Florida for the week before Christmas...after having the halo on for a month, things were getting a bit easier:-

• Clothes. I thought at first that I had to wear ugly big clothes with a large enough neckline to fit round all four bars that surrounded my head. But i soon learnt that as long as I could step into the neckline of a top/dress, then i could easily wriggle it up inside of the big plastic vest and look almost normal (despite the cage)


• Sleeping. Sleeping still wasnt great, but as my head and body got used to the halo and the weight of my head on the screws, I could sleep with a few less pillows and even turn on my side!! The only problem was, that if I wanted to ajust my self at all, it ment waking up to shift myself along with the cage.


• Walking. Obviously I could walk the whole time I had the halo on. But at the start, It was so tiering and awkward because of the way my whole top half was made rigid by the contraption. So as time went on, I got more used to it, and my body was able to relax into the frame a bit.


• General Movement. I could touch my toes, do a little dance, practically do back-flips by the end of my halo time.


• EATING AND DRINKING. I nearly forgot about this one. When I was first out of hospital, I had to drink through a straw and eat tiny mouthfulls at a time - I soon sorted my self out tho!!

So by the time I was in Florida, I was able to enjoy myself. Highlights ranging from the lush shopping in the US and the granny-scooters they have in all supermarkets and big stores, which I fully took advantage of!! :P

<<<> (I'm pulling the face.. The halo didn't make me perminantly cross-eyed or anything)

No Rest For The Crippled

Walking out out the hospital doors to the car was so lovely. The cool, fresh air of the outside world was amazing to breath in.
When we got home, I gave my two cats a big cuddle and sat down on the sofa. The next thing I thought was: 'I'm hungry, I'm REALLY hungry. Mmmm, Indian food would be golden right now' I hadnt eaten for 4 days and food is like the love of my life.
It just so happened that before the acciedent happened, I was supposed to be waitressing that night at a fund raising event "Indian Auction of Promises" for the trip to the Himalayers which Im going on this summer. There was Indian food there...so I decided to go.

I had been in hospital a couple of hours earlier and already I was out and about. Brilliant.
My attire for the night consisted of my baggy kick-boxing trousers and a MASSIVE white shirt of my dads. I looked so rediculous, like an actuall square. I must have looked pretty rough too.

When I got to the venue I saw all my school friends in their waitoring outfits standing by the door. Their faces were priceless. Some looked happy to see me. Some looked absolutly terrified. All of them were supprised that I was there.

I had a crowd of 30 people around me - staring. Neadless to say, I wasnt there to be a waitress, so i tucked into my first meal for days and then, after chatting to a few more people, left for home.

Good going so far, I'd say.