Mrs. T and I were having a lovely holiday in France until 2 days ago when we did a very simple 2k forest walk and she slipped whilst trying to avoid a puddle and broke her ankle in two places! The pompiers arrived in 20 mins and, having called a man with a chain saw to clear the path who arrived in 10 minutes, got her to A&E where they did x-rays, diagnosed the situation and kept her in over night, ambo to clinic first thing yesterday where they reassembled it with 6 pins in the afternoon. I picked her up at lunch time and bought a large bag of drugs with the shopping list they gave me. Perfect.
Now I wonder what’s next. What is the recovery process? How do I transfer a French case to a British hospital? When to travel back? Etc etc unknown unknowns.
Any experience/advice very welcome!
They will normally provide a letter with test results, including x-rays, plus a list of drugs (though you should keep the boxes in case). I can find a letter translator for most languages and French shouldn’t be a problem.
These days, it is possible to email the practice. The address will be on their website. Your GP should be able to forward everything to the local fracture clinic for follow up.
The most important thing is the initial intervention. If those pins do their job, it is a matter of time for healing to take place. Bones usually knit over a period of 6-12 weeks. Ankles are tricky joints. Ankle physio is mostly done in an “ankle class”. Her feet need to point forwards together and flexing and extension are important, not forgetting the side wobble, crucial for manoeuvrability.
I wish your wife a speedy recovery. I found I didn’t need much in the way of pain killers once the plate and pins had stabilised things.
Good luck!
How do intend to travel back? Are you flying? Plus, has Mrs T been given crutches?
Driving back. Finding a comfy position in the car is the challenge. I had to buy some crutches. They would have loaned them till we said we’re on holiday.
She’ll have to sit in the back with her leg up on the other seat, presuming there is space.
You could probably travel any time but plan for lots of extra stops on the way.
Can’t help you, but was slightly worried when you mentioned a chain saw! Hope she has a quick and successful recovery.
There had been a storm the night before and some light trees were down which were easy enough to negotiate but not when carrying a patient in a emergency chair so they just hacked through them.
Do you have travel insurance: it might be worth giving them a ring? Even if you only have the new UK Global Insurance card.
Yeah got them both. I’ve called travel insurance who are making the right noises but it seems the card is only for public services so the clinic weren’t interested at all!
A&E / ambulance etc was free though!
That’s good to hear. I hope things get back to normal as soon as Twang.
That’s Luna.
Broke my ankle very badly about 24 years ago in Hong Kong.
As it was a compound fracture, I spent about two weeks in hospital and
had to go to physio three mornings a week for three months as well as
do very stretching excerises with a big rubber band.
While will never run again (only got back about 70% of mobility in the ankle)
touch wood, I have thus far been spared the predicted arthritis.
The important thing for your wife is to remember is to do all the physio
sessions and all the at-home stretching exercises the therapist tells her to do.
Noted!
Blimming ‘eck! Send Mrs T our regards. We’re in the Cairngorms this week with Mrs F’s French-resident English teacher niece, so translation or explaining of the system is only a PM away.
Can I have you as my “Phone a Fenton”? Good work FS.
Not only is she a fluent English speaker but also a mother to two accident-prone boys and a hypochondriac. So she has extensive experience of the French health system.
All of Mrs F’s family are culturally diverse and I am very dull. She is the Yang to my Ying. Or vice-versa.
Ta but we’re ok on the lingo happily, to the complete amazement of the medical people, none of whom spoke English other than the doctor. They were all lovely though.
Ruddy heck @Twang!
Sincere condolences on the curtailment of your baguette eating, red ‘n’ white quaffing, croissant munching, last-in-the-2:30-at-Kempton scoffing vacation!
Ultra sympathy to Mrs. T for the pain the leg and the embarassment of being carted out of the woods in some sort of chair contraption!
Tell her to keep wiggling those toes. Good luck sorting out the aftercare back in Blighty too.
Ta VV!
Sorry to hear this…hope you get home without further trauma and she has a trouble free recovery.
Zut! Merde! Et quel dommage.
Wishing Mrs Twang a very speedy and full recovery. Get home promptly and safely.
…with which sentiment, I would like to associate myself…
Et moi aussi.
Allons-y!
Et pour le gros père de Kai:
My GLW broke her ankle in two places many years ago during a particularly good party – so good in fact that she only realised the next day how bad it was. Months of treatment and pins later she had to have the ankle frozen in place as it didn’t heal properly (maybe don’t mention these bits to your better half).
It did sort itself out eventually though and the physio was key to the effectiveness of the process. Pass on our regards – I’m sure she’ll appreciate good wishes from The Afterword 😊.
OMG I might keep this story to myself!
1. Scary story. I hope that Mrs T’s ankle makes a full recovery.
2. When I first read that heading “cheville cassée”, I assumed that someone had broken a rawlplug, as the French word ‘cheville’ can mean either ankle or rawlplug. One of the few things I remember from my French degree 40 years ago….
Good to know!
Way back in the mists of time, my summer job was emergency assistance for people with travel insurance – guaranteeing medical expenses, organizing hire cars and air ambulances etc.
Got a call.
“Hello, it’s…”
I know your voice Mrs XXX. Sorted out your medex yesterday. How can I help.
“I need a hire car, and a driver”
oh?
“So, you remember my husband had fallen over and broken his ankle yesterday? Well, we got home, and had a quiet evening. He needed to go to the toilet this morning, and like a genius decided he would go himself. Unzipped the tent, and made it the 50 yards to the toilet block. Got 49 yards back and slipped on the plastic matting at the front of the tent. Broke his other ankle very badly. I can’t drive…”
Mrs XXX, I’m just going to place you on hold.
“No, go ahead and laugh. I did . He’s such a stupid prick”
One of my favorite calls that year.
Back in the mid 80s I broke my leg in Italy on the upper slopes on the 3rd day of my first ever skiing trip. The most medical horrendous experience of my life but the telling of it is somewhere between a Hammer horror story and Some Mothers Do Ave Em. To start off When the rescue crew arrived (on skis plus stretcher ) they pulled out a small bottle of brandy – ‘Don’t give him a drink he’s in shock’ someone said; ‘No it’s for me’ said the rescuer and took a big slug before pulling me into the stretcher and I was then skiied down the mountain which was excruciatingly painful. They deposited me in this small hut whereupon the ‘doctor’ who in my mind was called Igor, appeared in a full length leather apron. He quickly and not carefully removed my boot and then injected my ankle. He then disappeared and came back with , I kid you not, an electric drill and a hammer! He then drilled through my ankle and hammered a metal post through it. By this time I was delirious with shock and disbelief. He then attached me via chains to a device which then stretched out my leg – by this point I’m screaming obscenities at Igor and basically praying for a quick death. Finally he encased my leg from foot to crotch in what seemed like half a ton of plaster. I literally could not move an inch. Spent 3 days in my hotel room with my mates having to do the bed pan business (they are still my friends). Best bit was going home – I arrived at the airport in a wheelchair but they had no idea how to get me on the plane until some bright spark fetched a fork lift truck and I arrived feet first into the plane to huge cheers and peals of laughter from
the rest of the passengers. Needless to say I’ve never felt the slightest desire to try skiing again.
Orthopaedic Surgeons are the millionaires of the medical profession (lots of quick procedures available privately). They are basic carpenters. 🌝
Veteran Jazz saxophonist Art Themen was an orthopaedic surgeon in his day job. Now retired (from orthopaedics).
Ouff! I very much sympathize with your wife after the month I’ve had.
After weeks of having a sore knee, as I ran to catch a bus to go to work I heard a loud snap! and my right leg buckled underneath me. Could barely use that leg, but managed to shuffle to and onto my bus, thinking that perhaps something had just slipped out of place but would “sort itself out” soon (ever the optimist…).
Barely able to hop off the bus, then very slowly shuffled my way from the bus stop to my place of work (thankfully right next to the bus stop!)
Immediately grabbed a colleague to inform them that they had to find someone to take my place as I needed to go to the hospital; by now in a cold sweat from the intense pain.
Long story short, after visits to the hospital, a knee specialist and having an MRI, turns out a meniscus, a ligament and the knee cap all have some injuries, none big enough to have any procedures done but all of them making my knee fairly useless for now.
Rest and physio is the cure, apparently, but it’s been going very slowly. The 24/7 pain of the first week is thankfully over, but I can’t manage any longer outings (on crutches – but only using one now, because it’s impossible to carry anything otherwise) without it bringing pain – but it will arrive an hour after the exercise, making it difficult to guess how much is too much walking…
The worst part of this injury (well, bar the pain of course) have been trying to navigate the medical system during these vacation months, endlessly calling around to different clinics to try to book appointments ASAP, getting conflicting answers from different people and in the end having to travel quite some way to be able to have an MRI a month sooner than the closer options could offer.
It’s now been three weeks and I’m getting better but is far from back to normal, I have three more weeks to go before I’m supposed to be able to go back to work, hopefully (if I had a job where I was mostly sitting down in front of a computer I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem at all, but my job keeps me walking non stop seven hours a day, doing heavy lifting and one of my daily tasks – too complicated to explain here – puts a lot of strain on my knee and is the reason why it got sore in the first place, leading to this).
Will try to get out more starting next week, risking some pain for some sun and fresh air, and some company. Starting to feel like a hermit!
Hoping for a speedy recovery for your wife, and a minimum of pain!
Yikes! That sounds ghastly – knees are notoriously painful to bu99er up.
Wishing you a smooth and pain-free recovery, and don’t hurry back to work; time spent in recovery will pay off handsomely in reducing the risk of a repetition.
Thanks; yes with the strain I put my knees through at work anyway, I won’t be able to go back until it’s all good.
Have been remitted to a rehab clinic, hopeful that they will know exactly what to do to get me back in shape for long walks and disco dancing! 😀
Oh no! You poor thing Locust. All you can do is follow doctor’s orders. Frustrating though!