All I want is a nice quiet Rugby day - happy now

Well no Rugby day is completely quiet. But I just spent all night at the hospital where I work helping repair the shoulder and leg of a kid who was hit by a driver stoned out of his gourd on who knows what. Kid was a mess, and the details - well forget it - too graphic. 7 hours of surgery and I hope the kid can recover.

Since I am in the US (its 6:20 now) and got home at 5:00am and are keyed up beyond logic. I cracked a beer, and want to sleep, which I can't do. All I want for today is to watch the Barbarians before going to play at three o'clock. I ache like crap, I feel like crap, and my son told me I look like crap. Marvelous.

OK this is just a rant, but I need your help. How to lose the sinking, stinking feeling and get my blood up to play?

You're a hero man! Enjoy your day sir, you deserve it! I'm sure once you're in the changing room you'll be switched on and good to go. Good luck!

It's 9.25 here now so I'm thinking it must be 11.25 in NY State and you should hopefully be getting some well deserved rest. Agree with roddersm, once your in the changing room I think you will be okay. Are you back at work later or can you properly wind down after the game?

Mrs is a nurse so kind of understand how hard it is sometimes to wind down after shifts / incidents like that. Hope the kid makes a good recovery.

The kid can move his arm and legs! Full sensation and feeling. Un-feckin-believeable! This is cloud 9 stuff.

OK, I couldn't grab a wink all day. Went to play, and Rodders, you were right. Surrounded by my teammates of retards, rejects, retreads, and the rediculous, I was quite at home. By the way, I love these guys. First contact got my head back in place.

I get a call from the hospital about 30 minutes after the match telling me to get back, and fast. I thought the worst, but am still in awe from what I saw. The kid, who was well and truly screwed, has full feeling and movement in his arm which I half thought was a goner. Ubelieveable. And he WILL walk and use his arm normally again. A lot of work ahead for him, but he will be OK. NOW I can sit back and drink until I can't walk (or pass out).

B91212, I don't know how your wife (and you too) handle this stuff. No matter how long I've been at this, it always gets me the same way. And this was off the charts. You should have seen the parents, too.

Thanks for listening/reading. Appreciated. And by the way, B, I recorded the Saints match. Gonna wait til Sunday to watch, but if you don't know the score, go look it up. You won't be unhappy. The Saints against the Sinners............

To the Good Doctor...

agree with rodders, you are a hero and i am sure the kid and his family are super appreciative of your time and effort.

Glad the game went well and you deserve the drink at the end of the day.

BTW, your moniker always brings a smile to my face as my childhood family doctor back in Belfast was none other than Doctor Grey.

Have a good Sunday.

doctor_grey wrote:The kid can move his arm and legs! Full sensation and feeling. Un-feckin-believeable! This is cloud 9 stuff.

Fantastic stuff! Have a on me!

Gents,
Thanks for the kind thoughts. It is times like this which makes doing this kind of thing worth, well, everything. I saw the kid's mum this morning and she didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both. For an bumhole like me to have the opportunity to help a kid like this is still amazing.

Its a strange thing, but I never really discuss any of this at home. I think I got into that habit when in places like Iraq, W. Africa, and so on. Just keeping alive was the goal, and I think all of us reacted the same way. So, thanks for reading.

Last night, after seeing the kid in the hospital, I somehow ended up in a bar where some Rugby folk hang out. Late last night after a lot of beer, and some Jamison's to boot, the guys told me I played like merde yesterday, bad marde, to be clear. So things are back to normal. Today is dedicated to my couch, gaviscon, ibuprofen, toast, powerade, gaviscon, ibuprofen, toast, powerade and sunglasses.

Thanks again. Cheers!

My Mrs handles it pretty much the same way as you - gets through it at the time and then de-stresses afterwards. She used to do surgery and was then a Nurse Practitioner in the UK and now works in Oncology & Palliative Care - not so intense any more but pretty hard mentally sometimes.

By the way I understand the couch, ibuprofen, toast & powerade (x2) but why the gaviscon? Did you top the beer & irish whiskey off with some super hot wings or something

Doc, thats a brilliant uplifting story. I hop you enjoyed your game and the beers, you certainly deserved the beer. Well done.