About Me

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I am a 68-year-old gay disabled amateur part-time writer living in Slough, Berkshire UK. I have published around 60 articles in 20 leisure and lifestyle magazines. I live with a range of health issues including heart disease, chronic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, depression, atrial fibrillation and restless leg syndrome. (I'm working my way through the medical dictionary!). I'm a member of Slough Writer's Group which is interesting and informative. Latest News. 10th July 2023 Awarded 'The Sandy Lee-Guard Award for Endeavour' by the Slough Writers Group. 6th December 2023 Completed studying 'Writing for Magazines' with CityLit University. January 2nd 2024. Fell over in the lounge and fractured my left femur (whilst recovering from fracturing my right femur in July 2023). Recovery expected to take 6 - 8 months. May 2024. Completed studying ' National Centre for Writing' course 'Creative Non-Fiction - An Introduction'. You can see the articles that have been published in the 'LATEST WORK' section of my website. It's at http://richardhill.co.uk/latest.html

Tuesday 2 January 2024

A depressing day in the New Year.

This evening I tripped over in the lounge, banged my head, and fractured my other (left) femur. It was an agonizing wait for an ambulance. When I first called 999 to request an ambulance, I was told that the current wait time was 12 hours!. I called back a couple of hours later as I'd started getting chest pain and they upgraded me to 'high-priority' for which the wait time was 4 hours, however, the first ambulance arrived about 2 hours after the second 999 call. They had no 'gas and air' nor were they equipped to deliver IV morphine and they had to call for a second ambulance.

Putting me in a 'split stretcher' was sheer agony as I was being wheeled into the ambulance. I was taken to Wexham Park Hospital. As I'd banged my head, they first of all put me in a CT scanner. Later, they x-rayed my hip which showed that I'd fractured my femur.

The following day I had to have an operation to insert a titanium rod and screws into the top of my femur. (Intramedullary nail (IM Nail) fixation). I spent a short time in the recovery ward before being transferred to Ward 1. After a few days, I was transferred to the rehabilitation ward (Jubilee Ward) at Upton Hospital where I stayed until my discharge on Thursday 8th Feb.

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