Disnerdy

If you’ve been reading the blog you will already know on our visit to Disneyland Paris in May I broke my wrist. I thought people might want to know what visiting a French hospital was like and my experience.

To recap, it was the third day of our trip, we had just had dinner in Hunter’s Grill at our hotel, Sequoia Lodge, Beans had gone back to our room to grab his camera, myself, my mum and my nephew, Mikey, had gone upstairs to use the restroom, on the way back down the stone steps my right ankle turned and I fell, landing on my right wrist. I heard the crack. 

On being sat at the bottom of the steps in shock, pain and tears I got my mum to phone Beans to say I’d fallen, mum went to get ice. Beans then got help from the concierge, who came, stopped guests using the stairs I’d fallen down, called for an emergency responder and called for a manager.

Michael, the manager on duty was brilliant, he helped translate when the emergency responder got stuck with translating French to English. They got me into a chair where the emergency responder checked me over, due to my ankle really hurting, it actually hurt more than my wrist to start with, they ankle and wrist were broken.

As Beans had his car they explained it would be quicker for him to drive me, than wait for an ambulance, the emergency responder called ahead to say we were on the way and Michael gave Beans the address to put in his sat-nav.

The hospital – Grand Hopital Est Francilien was a 5 minute drive away at Site Marne La Vallee Jossigny. The sat-nav took us straight there, and we found a spot in the car park near the entrance. Beans went inside and found a wheelchair as I couldn’t put wait on my ankle, then came and got me, I got in the wheelchair and he pushed me inside.

For those of you that have been to hospital in the UK, filling in a form with my details was the same. Then the strangeness came – I needed to hand over my GHIC card and my passport. They took photocopies of both. They then typed our home address into their computer and used Google maps to confirm the house pictured on the screen was in fact ours. We confirmed it was. We were then sent to sit in the waiting area.

We were seen in triage, where I was given paracetamol and ibuprofen to help with the pain. I was checked over then directed to x-ray. My ankle and wrist were both x-rayed, the radiographer said broken and pointed to my wrist. We were given the films and directed back to the waiting area.

We were really lucky, we only had to wait a short time before being called in by the doctor. Again this bit was hard. The doctor was unsure how to explain what was wrong and what needed to happen due to not having English as his first language, and even with Google translate couldn’t find the best word to describe what he wanted to say.

Thankfully Beans sister is fluent in French, so Beans called her and asked if she could talk to the doctor and let us know what was going on. Thanks to Beans sister the doctor was able to get over that my wrist was badly broken and would need surgery. Unfortunately he couldn’t say how long it would take for orthopaedics to come and assess and then schedule surgery. We explained, via Beans sister, that we were booked on the overnight ferry the next day, and due to having my mum and nephew it would make staying difficult. The doctor explained they could do a reduction and immobilise the wrist in order for us to get home, as long as I promised to head straight to the hospital on return to the UK, which I did. The ankle thankfully was just a soft tissue injury.

We were then sent to the plaster room, where I was placed on gas and air for over 45minutes. Apparently I am hysterical when I am high on nitrous oxide.

Mikey was sending me pictures of him and mum and the drones and fireworks to show me they were having fun.

I was then taken off the gas and air, and given an injection of morphine. The doctor drew up a large dose of the morphine, injected a small amount of it in my arm then walked off with the part filled syringe in his hand. Then it was reduction time. This involved two people manipulating the broken part of the bone back into place, and as true to its placement as possible. I was then wrapped from fingers to just below the elbow in plaster casting. The cast was huge.

I was then allowed to leave, and told to take the x-rays to the hospital on arrival in the UK. We got back to the hotel between midnight and 1am, I didn’t have the most comfortable sleep.

In the morning a different manager, Matthew, phoned to check in and see how we were doing, it was agreed we didn’t have to check out of our hotel room till 3pm, so I could rest if I needed to. It also took off some of the stress of packing as it gave us more time to pack. 

We headed to Walt Disney Studios Park, my ankle was really sore when we left the hotel and I was limping, slowly while walking on it the pain started to ease, and the limping started to subside.

We rode Web slingers, looked in the shops and watched Mickey and the magician. Then we went back to the room to finish packing, well I rested while everyone else finished packing. Once we checked out of the room we chilled out Redwood Bar in the hotel, then got McDonalds in Disney Village for dinner, then got in the car and Beans drove us back to Dieppe for the midnight ferry.

On arrival back in the UK we drove to Salisbury from Newhaven, where we met my dad, mum and Mikey switched cars to go home, and Beans and I headed to Southampton General Hospital. I handed over my x-rays and the notes from the French hospital. The hospital were fascinated with the plaster cast, a student nurse was told to point out all the flaws in it. Once the plaster was removed I was x-rayed and they explained I had a Colles distal radius fracture and it would definitely need surgery. They placed it in a much smaller plaster cast and sent me home, saying I’d get a call in a couple of days to arrange surgery.

The next day they phoned to say I’d get surgery on the following Wednesday. I was first in, had a nice sleep while they fixed my wrist with pins and a plate, on waking up I was amazed to find I only had a bandage on, rather than a cast.

I had to spend two weeks with my wrist elevated, then had a follow up where the incision was checked, it had healed really well, and I was sent to see Hand therapy where I was given a splint to wear.

In early July we got a bill through the post for my treatment. It was only for €19.61 so I followed the instructions on the bill and paid online, rather than going through the travel insurance company. I don’t know if that was the total bill or if it was a reduced rate due to having the GHIC card, but I would say to people travelling to Europe to make sure they have one.

Thankfully my wrist is healing well, I’ve been having physio on it, and the strength is returning.

TTFN, Titch