Taking a trip

I learned something new today.

This morning we embarked on our winter tour. We got off to a flying start and it was a little before 10:00 when we were preparing to leave. Mr L went to retrieve cats from beneath the bed and I went to do something that now escapes me. Anyway, as I stepped from the van my ankle turned and I fell off the step.

I landed on my back, then my head hit the deck.

When Mr L came back out to investigate the noise (I had yelled) I was sitting up and holding my hurting head. There was, of course, blood when I removed my hand.

Fortunately, my head did not fall off but it was determined that I should get up and be investigated. Said investigation led to the decision that I should visit the doctor for first aid. I was uncertain as to my ability to rise but a helping hand was proferred.

Vehicles had to be shuffled round and Mr L did this after re-securing cats. I, in the meantime, commenced a one-handed hunt for my Carte Vitale – The other hand was holding a wodge of kitchen roll to the back of my head…

The wound was declared to be "nothing" (but was cleaned for me.) Humph! She wouldn’t have said that had she been on the receiving end! But the doctor enquired about my tetanus status. I happily told her what a previous GP had told me, that I am fully covered and need no further boosters. "Not here" she said, ominously.

It transpires that Tetanus is endemic in our part of the world and 20 year boosters are required for everybody… until age 65, when the boosters are given at ten-yearly intervals. It must be at least 15 years since my previous "final" top-up and so a prescription was written. The routine here is that the patient gets the scrip filled and returns to the doctor to have the jab administered. Fortunately, as we were about to depart for Spain and didn’t really want to defer for the making of appointments, one dose was found at the back of the fridge and was administered on the spot.

We then had to go fill the scrip and afterwards return to the surgery to hand over the goodies.

It was around 11:15 once we had returned home, shuffled vehicles again, strapped up my ankle and loaded cats.

The journey was quite a miserable one and it rained almost all of the way. As we drove, I became aware of a new pain every half hour or so. The inventory appears to be: a cut on the head (sore), a headache, a wrenched back, a bruised hip, a banged elbow, a scraped and bruised wrist, and last but by no means least, a sprained ankle.

My hair is full of blood and I am not allowed to shampoo for several days. I am so happy that I persuaded Mr L to cut my hair yesterday or things would have been so much messier than they are.

I won’t be walking the dog for a few days either.

Comfort food was the order of the day when we arrived at Lamagdalaine. How fortuitous that there is a boulangerie here… Coffee and Flan aux Prunes went down very nicely, thank you.

That’s my annual fall over and done with and I am most grateful not to have fallen on my knee this time.

Cat news: both behaved very well today. Both currently inside the van and showing no desire to go forth in the rain.

Am sending this post in by email. I hope that it works..