11 Plus Exams Forum

Should any forum member be in the unfortunate position that I found myself in this morning, with foot skewered on a rusty screw at a time when your GP surgery is closed, and the NHS 111 service tells you that you need to attend an 'emergency facility' within one hour, on account of the depth of the injury, and the rustiness and dirtiness of the screw, and of the major blood loss all over your patio ('yes but is it bright red? (yes) and enough to fill a mug? (erm, hold on while I get a mug)', which gives your OH the vindication he needs for not yet having pressure washed said patio this year; and you decide no I am not going to A&E despite your advice, and despite you ascertaining that my chest hasn't gone cold and there isn't a bone sticking out of my ankle and I can still breathe; should this be you, and I really hope it isn't -

- the piece of information you need is: you have 48 hours to get a tetanus jab. And if you were born after 1961 and didn't skip your appointments, you shouldn't need it anyway.

Hint: tell NHS 111 you have no intention of taking their advice to call an ambulance as it is a total waste of everyone's time and resources. They then, on account of your (very polite) defiance, pass you over to a 'clinical colleague' who tells you in ten seconds the answer to what you rang to ask - do I need a tetanus jab and how long have I got to get one? (Probably not, 48 hours, call your GP practice tomorrow. Meanwhile, and this is really horrid, fill a bucket with soapy water, get a scrubbing brush and some soap and scrub that wound hard. And yeah, that hurts more than the screw going in, or being pulled out).

Ouch. Hope all heels (misspelt on purpose, please forgive the foot pun) well.

I prescribe feet up for the afternoon, with a glass of something cold in your hand while the family cook for you over an open fire Hope it doesn't hurt for too long.

Hope you feel better now, Amber... and that you get your tetanus jab tomorrow...
Got a less horrible story than yours last year as it was with a non rusty can... but I needed some stitches so had to go to A&E and the doc did for me the jab with no problems...

hermanmunster wrote:Glad to hear it was so quick for the clinical transfer!! Gather local screens are nothing like that today....

Amber wrote:They then, on account of your (very polite) defiance, pass you over to a 'clinical colleague' who tells you in ten seconds the answer to what you rang to ask - do I need a tetanus jab and how long have I got to get one?

I didn't even know there was such a thing actually Herman - I rang A&E first to see if they could tell me how long it was safe to wait - they told me they don't even give tetanus jabs. They told me to call 111 which has always been a triumph of hope over experience but I thought their operator might have the information to hand, rather than talking me through 8 minutes of the 'are you breathing and conscious?' nonsense. What a waste of resources it all is though - ideally there would be an easy way of knowing how long ago I had the jab, but failing that, all I wanted to know was how long it was safe to wait. It was a lovely paramedic called Matt who called me back almost instantly and had a laugh with me as well as telling me instantly what I needed to know. Couldn't the 111 service use these people straight away rather than going through a nonsense rigmarole which seems to fail the very seriously ill almost as often as it allows people like me to take up valuable time?

That is the baby - suitably cleaned of bodily fluids, but as an answer to the question, 'is the screw properly rusty?'

Oh dear Amber, that sounds awful and very painful... The degree of rustiness is not so much of an issue as is what else was on that screw.

Spores of the bacteria that cause tetanus, Clostridium tetani, are found in soil, dust and animal feces.

I hope you get that tetanus jab tomorrow.

In a John Cleese/Michael Palin type voice...that is not a screw...that is an ex-screw....

Hope it all mends soon.

Thanks guys. Not so good at sitting doing nothing but that has been my afternoon. Going to be fun trying to drive tomorrow (hole on the ball of my right foot) so rather hoping the GP tells me I am up to date on the tetanus. DH tells me he squeezed out about half a glass of blood from my sock, not wishing to pollute the contents of the washing machine, so maybe I made that mugful after all.

The cat has come out in sympathy and is limping too.

...which is very good of DH but, from the look of that screw, your foot isn't the only thing with a blinking great hole in it! i suspect that sock may well be destined for the bin...The cat? No. I have nothing to add....

Amber, I wish you a speedy recovery. The photo made me wince.
Your post has made me think of my Dad. When I was small he stood on a rusty nail in the garden and had a tetanus jab. Unfortunately he had a massive allergic reaction to it which was blamed on the fact that he had had a lot of tetanus jabs in the past while working in engineering.(He could never remember when he had had one last, so they just used to give him another jab whenever he went to hospital.)He was told never to have another one as it may kill him!