I didn’t post about it at the time, but I had a pretty serious accident myself in August. My experience of the NHS physios at Hull Royal Infirmary couldn’t be more different to yours at wherever your wife was treated. I had physio before I was discharged initially, then at 2 and 8 weeks and now at monthly intervals. All one to one sessions of either half an hour or, at the last one and my next scheduled appointment, an hour. I have private health cover through work, but I haven’t needed to use it as my NHS appointments have all been very quick, in fact quicker than when I’ve had private appointments to ‘queue jump’ in the past (the same or next day for all non-recurring appointments so far).
She had the odd one to one session at the start, but soon moved over to group sessions. At long intervals the same as you. Her knee was actually worst the third time after the surgery to repair the damage from the two dislocations, and she ended up going back to the doctors which got escalated back to the specialist and then on to the physio’s and it was determined the job was finished as before and no more could be done. The two private physios we spoke to confirmed what we had realised that as long as you can walk and get up and down stairs they consider it job done. But she couldn’t kneel, run, jump, swim or walk long distances. Private physio started weekly with 30 minute sessions then built up to hour long once the strength began to return then dropped right off to monthly, functionality has returned to her knee finally after years and she can actually do stuff without being in crippling pain. The private physio was very targeted and involved stuff including massage and teaching to self massage even included things like correcting posture, how movements are made and was just so much more detailed and involved in every aspect. In comparison the NHS peaked at being taught how to do a couple of exercises and being sent home with a piece of paper with them printed on and being told to do 5 of this and 10 of that 3 times a day for a month. That was as good as it ever got.
To be fair your wife is further down the road than I am and some of what you're saying ties in with what I've seen myself so my experience might change from here on in too. The first three appointments were all with specialist neurology physios and were far more concerned with ensuring that my injuries had been diagnosed fully post-accident and hadn't caused any lasting nerve damage. When they were satisfied that my remaining injuries were non-neurological I was discharged from neurology and referred on to general physio. I had a phone consultation with them first and then my last appointment (the first hour long one) was the first face to face in the general physio department, but was very firmly targeted on the shoulder and arm injuries that hadn't already been addressed by neurology. As you say I came away with a set of exercises to do from that, but they're working pretty well so far and my next appointment is to review progress. Whether they'll get me 'better' remains to be seen, and whether they'll discharge me before that is also in the future. But all good so far, and as my legs were unaffected I was able to walk, talk and climb up stairs on day one (or at least once the spine brace had been fitted) so I've certainly not been discharged when I could do that.
I'm sure there's NHS staff on here who know more than me about it, but now I've gone public so to speak I would say as a regular visitor to HRI over the last 3 months I've seen the threat level of COVID locally and HRI staff's treatment of it change significantly. When I spent 9 hours on a spinal injury board and not allowed to move in Resus in August the staff were complaining to each other about having to wear the masks etc as they hadn't had any cases in the entire hospital for 2 days (or so they said, as I said I'm sure there's plenty of NHS staff on here who know better than me). They were also really apologetic that my wife wasn't allowed in with me. While I was there though they admitted another COVID patient and other than mentioning this to each other they didn't complain about the PPE after that. If anything the risk was taken less seriously in September and having driven me there my wife was allowed in with me to the physio, but when I was there last week the mood was totally different with full social distancing, chairs being cleaned after every use and staff putting notes on them saying not to use them as soon as people stood up etc. It was pretty grim, but reassuring that it is now being taken so seriously. On a personal note, it's taken a while, but I've just started back at work. On reduced hours initially, but building up over the next few weeks. There's light at the end of the tunnel mate, even if it could be quite a long tunnel.
My Dad was in from the end of August. Initially there was no visits but from early/mid Sept they allowed visiting to recommence. My Mum saw him every other day until he transferred around the 21st. I wasn’t comfortable with the visiting & would have preferred it to stay a closed shop. His transfer was delayed because the guy in the next bed had tested CoVid positive the week before & they were waiting for Dad’s test results (it was -ve along with the secondary test) I was a little irked as Mum had visited three times in the period between the guy testing positive (they initially didn’t isolate him) & Dad’s transfer. They also, despite knowing they were accommodating a +ve case, allowed visits to continue. I’m sure if Dad wasn’t being transferred they wouldn’t have mentioned it. No visiting in Beverley, hard but safer & for the best. He had a home visit on Wednesday & providing we get the alterations needed completed & a care package in place he’ll be home for Xmas. Hope your progress is going well Pal & you’re soon back to your best!!
Thanks Ben. As you say if anything it did feel too laissez faire in September - we were expecting my wife to have to go home or wait in the car for me once she’d dropped me off, but we asked on the way in and it was all fine. Whether we should have chosen for her not to come in with me is a different question admittedly, though I hoped that she’d be given some brace adjustment tips by the physio and she was, which made my subsequent weeks in the brace a lot more pleasant. I’m very pleased that your dad’s test was negative, and that he should be home for Christmas. My own dad has 6 visits a day from his carers, which has allowed him to stay at home with my mum, despite his dementia and physical frailty, and it’s kept both of them happier and more content that I think they would have been in a care setting. Although even with the carers my 89 year old mum’s workload is pretty intense and I wish they’d gone down the sheltered accommodation route when he was still fit enough to move. Fingers crossed that all goes OK and you get to see them at home for Christmas. Even if it’s just through a window.
Thank you and I’m pleased that you are making good progress. The staff were outstanding, I was only on a ward for 4 days, I’m sure under normal circumstances it would have been longer, but these are such strange times it was a case of if you’re fit enough you got discharged. They were trying to free up beds and staff to help on the Covid wards.
Yes, I don't know how many of my upcoming appointments will be cancelled. I'm meant to have physio again in December then a follow up X-ray and consultation at the Fracture Clinic in January, where I'll hopefully be discharged by them too, but if they're all cancelled I'll cope. I'm doing OK now and I'd rather they concentrate on saving lives if they're able to, though admittedly I can't imagine either physios or fracture specialists being the first medical staff they'd call on to man COVID wards even if it continues to ramp up locally. (Though they could maybe backfill staff from other wards who are more directly manning COVID wards - I aren't underplaying how grim it was last week and I know it's worse now) For all that it was the tail-end of the first wave I wasn't even admitted in August. Other than superficial cuts I didn't have anything like you do in terms of 'surface' wounds, but multiple fractures in my neck and back which only became apparent on the CT scan, so once they were confident that they were all held in place by the brace they asked if someone was able to pick me up and just sent me home. As you say I imagine I would have been admitted and kept under observation for longer in normal times, especially given that I'd been unconscious for a bit after the accident. I hope your recovery continues to go OK too. I'm 14 weeks in and still hugely relieved that I'm here at all so any improvement from here is a bonus.
I had five months of twice weekly physio this year, to start with one then group sessions, and I found the group sessions to be better. You join when others are at different levels of recovery, which enables you to aim for where those further down the line are at. The others in the group also offer encouragement when you have bad days, and you're happy for those that are eventually discharged. One of the first questions the physio asked me was what I wanted my outcome to be. Our group was usually no more than ten with usually at least four staff members, often more. I have nothing but praise and thanks for every one of them.
Glad you're doing ok GLP. Helmet's do save lives. I was called as a witness to a tragic accident where a car driver was accused of manslaughter when he caused a bike rider to fall off. He hit his head on the floor, was conscious at the time, taken to hospital and was thought ok. Started deteriorating hours later and died the next day from a brain bleed. He wasn't wearing a helmet.
Thought I’d update this as on Friday I had more surgery to de-fuse my Radius and Ulna and clear out some scar tissue. This should hopefully give me back some pronation and supination movement in my arm - which now looks like a London Underground map with all the scars I have been using Bupa Physiotherapy since the beginning of December as the NHS Physiotherapy wasn’t really providing any genuine progress. They basically sent me away each time with Physiotherapy worksheets to do at home. It’s not a criticism, some of the help has been genuinely beneficial, I just needed more intervention to get my arm moving as the longer it’s left the more difficult it is to get back. So progress should now be motoring once I have these stitches out. City haven’t provided much comfort either
I actually thought about you when out cycling this morning GLP.... in a man to man sort of way...... jeees it was cold and the wind killed me... I went round a corner and I went one way, the bike went the other and landed on my back.... you'll be pleased to know the bike is ok... keep on the mend...
I’m eager to get back out some point in the future. The irony is I’d ordered a titanium gravel bike about 4 weeks before my accident and it’s been sat in the garage since the middle of November still in the box. Little did I know when I ordered it was that most of my right arm would be held together with titanium
