Blog catch up ..Mark's Accident

9/17/2013

Well, you may remember in my last blog, my friend Mark who came on my Birthday walk with me, I mentioned at the end that he had had an accident. This is about his recovery. It has been 13 weeks since the accident.

This is what my best friend Mark normally gets up to. Mark was one of the first ever skydivers to sky dive alongside Mount Everest.

Mark sit flying at Blackpool skydiving centre

Mark likes adventure and extreme sports. He is fit because he never stops doing something or trying something new. He doesn't go to the gym, he doesn't lift weights, he doesn't do sit ups or any of the stuff that I do and love doing.

Instead, he remains in shape through gymnastics, playing squash, playing badminton, and leading me on crazy off road routes on his mountain bike whilst I run behind.

Mark goes beyond a normal fit person and has the endurance and stamina of a mountain goat. I remain fit because I train hard and run stupid distances, but we both share a sense of fun with what we do and we both love paragliding.

I was going to go on a paragliding trip to France in June, but work took priority whilst my friend Mark, who always finds excuses not to work went.

The wound after the lung drain was removed. Apart from that, not a scratch on him from the crash.

Well, apart from the bruising from the broken ribs

I woke up one night at 1am to a text from Mark. It said ;

"I am in Intensive care, but don't worry".

Mark had broken 8 ribs, punctured his lung and broken his pelvis. He was lucky to be alive.

Having had an accident once (or twice)and knowing how lonely it feels being in a hospital and also knowing that Mark was unable to fly back because of his punctured lung with the risk of it collapsing again, I decided to un-prioritise work and fly to Annecy in France.

I knew Mark would hate not doing anything. The worst accident he had done before was a broken wrist. Mark didn't 'do' accidents, just like he didn't do 'personal training'. Or so he thought. Turns out he was wrong...about both.

The hospital near Annecy

Mark had already been 6 days in Intensive Care by the time I had got there. He was moved out of the Intensive Care room whilst I was there and put in a different room, which he still had to himself.

My french was very poor, but I managed to understand the words 'stubborn' and 'difficult 'when the Doctor nodded his head in the direction of Mark.

The Doctor asked Mark if he was in pain and if he wanted any pain killers. Mark shook his head. The Doctor asked Mark if he had tried to move at all, again Mark shook his head. That's why you are not in pain I said, take some painkillers and start moving. And so it began...

Mark doing balancing tricks, once he realised it was safe to move. Up until I had arrived he thought he couldn't. I soon put stop to that.

Once he started he couldn't stop. I had told him that it was important to keep moving, to avoid muscle wastage and the risk of blood clots.
He took this to mean in his ever usual extreme way, that he had to start walking the entire length of the hospital corridor right away and do balancing tricks.

Together we came up with some extreme rehabilitation methods he could cope with, in other words not bore him to death. Not your usual sitting down leg lift type of exercise ...

It was hard trying to stop Mark from doing too much. At one point I had wheeled him outside to get some fresh air, when he got up, abandoned the wheelchair and started down the stairs to the hospital's underground car park!

Mark soon realised how hard it would be coming back up the stairs with a broken pelvis.

By the end of the week, Mark was discharged from the hospital. We couldn't go home yet though, because Mark had to wait a further 10 days until his punctured lung was healed and was safe to fly.

I found us a place to stay near the lake, thanks to a lovely friend I had made called Cathy, well, it was about 3 miles up hill from the lake, but I hired a wheelchair. Everyday I wheeled Mark to the lake and his rehab involved walking around parts of lake, sometimes Mark pushing me in the wheelchair instead! Another lovely friend we met, called Cecile, gave us a set of crutches, so Mark was soon using those!

I also took advantage of the circumstances and got a couple of runs done up Mont Veyrier as we were right by the Alps. But that's another story, and involves an old man and his dog and me getting lost...

And finally ...