Thanks everybody for your kindness.
The full story:
I go for a run two or three times a week. I get up at 5:15, warm up and off I trot. I was a few minutes late leaving today and when I got to a particular stretch of pavement there were early morning commuters going for the railway station. Normally I see them a few minutes later. I stepped off the pavement to go round them having checked over my shoulder that there was no traffic approaching from the rear. Rather than a wet road though my left foot plunged into a deep, water-filled pothole and I fell like a ton of bricks. I knew immediately that this was no ordinary sprain or twist.
It took me a few minutes to get off the road and in that time a number of impatient motorists drove round me and drove off. Luckily for me I was close to Rugby railway station and within five minutes a couple of first aid-trained staff came to my assistance. They helped me up and took me clear of the road. The pain was horrendous and I felt nauseous for quite a long time.
Sarah, the lead first aider was incredible and kept me talking, arranged for a coat and blanket to keep me warm, called the ambulance and did regular stats checks on me.
After 30 minutes the first responder from the ambulance service arrived. He was the world's biggest knob head and kept trying to get me to weight bear even though I made it clear to him in no uncertain terms that I was not going to do this. We didn't get on at all and Sarah saw this and stayed with me. The one good thing this guy did was pull out the laughing gas. I think that I would have decked him if he'd not got the hint.
The ambulance arrived about thirty minutes later still. The guys in the bus were great and after talking to Marcus they spoke with Sarah and myself. It was clear to me even in my shocked and disoriented state that the ambulance guys absorbed everything that Sarah told them.
So, off i go and I get to Coventry A&E at about 7:45. The ambulance crew were awesome and soon I was checked in with Claire, the treage nurse. She was also rather wonderful. I was moved to A&E minors and left to sleep for a while having gulped a shedload of meds. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep. x-ray came and went and then the diagnosis.
In 1998 I broke my left fib in a mountainbiking accident. It was a clean break, a rotational break of the distal fib and I had two ops, a plate and a stasis screw. The stasis screw was removed after nine weeks. The doc broke the news as follows:
The good news is that your fibula with the plate has held firm and there are no problems there. Unfortunately your ligaments must be made of steel because you have in fact broken the end of your tibia where the ligaments attach. Everything si more or less in place but we need to plaster you now and you need to visit the trauma clinic in a few days to see where we go from here.
I took it in my stride - hell, there's nothing else a chap can do, is there?
#1 cub collected me from A&E at about midday and whisked me home.
Sarah, the lovely virgin Trains first aider rang me later and is popping round to see me tomorrow. How lovely. I owe her a big big thank you.
I've had a sleep this afternoon and now I'm about to have some food. The 400mg stock of brufen has arrived and I'm thinking about a long soak in the bath before an early night with radio 4 extra.