What the Doctor REALLY had to say............

"You're going to have to talk with your sister and try and get her to understand she is more than likely going to loose her leg"

The doctor was standing at the end of my bed talking with my brother. I couldn't hear too much as I am so drugged up, I can't open my eyes let alone move ANY part of my body,

but I did hear THAT and my brother saying, 'She's not gonna like that!"

The drugs make you feel constantly wasted, you have wakeful moments, then in the middle of a conversation, you just fall asleep.

But I do remember as clear as day the doctor saying the above to my brother and me sitting bolt upright and saying "like fuck you're taking my leg, you can take anything you want, but you're not taking my leg!!.

I remember my friend Clare coming in and holding my hand, I felt really overwhelmed, crying, I said to her, "They're going to take my leg Clare, they're going to take my leg.

"No babe, she said, its your arm they are worried about, your leg is fine.

Thats what everyone thought at THAT point.

The Doctor comes in, Hi Rach, I'm Peter Devane, these are - (all the other surgeons and entourage that comes along for the rounds, I don't remember any of their names).

Do you feel up to a chat about where you are, and what's happened to you?

Yes-

After the initial, do you know what day it is, what year it is, you know the usual.

Dr -It's Tuesday Morning, you're in ICU, You've had a shaky 24 hours.

You've had a very nasty accident, and you've got some pretty serious injuries.

You're right leg, it's badly broken, we stopped counting after 300 fractures.

And your left arm? that's badly broken too.

You're going to be here a while.

First things first, we've opened up your leg and had a look at what we're dealing with.

What goes in your favour is you're young, and fit, you're not overweight, and not smoker?

Me "NO"

Dr - If you were a smoker and or overweight, your leg would have been removed.

When we opened up your leg, we were impressed with the quality of the muscle, it looks so good in there, it looked like a good piece of steak - ready for the BBQ. You are clearly a fit young women who uses your legs a lot, so we figured, we need to try and save this leg.

All jokes aside Rachel, you might not like what we have to say from here, but this is what we are up against. The femur bone, it's the largest bone in the body, it's not a nice bone to break. You haven't just broken the bone, it's shattered, not only that, the bone has grated against the asphalt of the road, and that's just your leg let alone the rest of your body.

Dr Continues.........As I've said, we've been in already, and taken out all the shattered bone,

it was like picking up confetti. You've lost 10cm of the femur bone just above the knee, you don't have much of a knee left, and the tibia and fibula are badly fractured too.

We have filled the 10 cm gap with some bone cement, and we have stabilised the bone with metal plates down most of the length of your leg, one large plate down the length of the femur, and another smaller one just below the knee, to stabilise the tibia and fibula.

We need to make sure that leg does not get any kind of infection, if it does, the leg could come off, we need to make sure the bone does not get any kind of infection, if it does, it could come off, we need to make sure the blood supply is doing what it is meant to be doing, at the moment we can't see if there is any nerve damage or blood supply damage, so we need to keep an eye on the circulation, and feeling in your leg. If the blood isn't flowing to the lower part of your leg properly, it could still come off.

You've got a steep hill to get over, and you are far from out of the woods. We have never seen a break like this before, we don't quite know how we are going to fix it, but we will look into ALL options. For now, we can't get any kind of infection in that leg.

And just to top it off Rach, there is to be NO WEIGHT put through that leg, there is nothing there to hold you, you can not afford to cause any further damage, so there is absolutely no walking, no weight bearing through that leg of ANY kind not even standing on it. Do you understand this?

Yes.

You also have a badly broken arm, we have stabilised it for now with an external fix, you'll need to be careful not to knock it. There is a good chance you could loose that too.

You have fractured both bones above the wrist, damaged about 3-4 cm of the radius, that is going to need to be grafted as long as the blood supply stabilises. You also have broken ribs, several cracks in your pelvis and lacerations to your liver.

As I said, you are going to be here a while, there is a lot to be done to get you back on deck. You're drugged up to the eyeballs, so if you feel any kind of pain, I want to know about it.

Holly F#@$balls!!!! What the hell do you say to all that???