Bed 18, Children's Ward, Katherine Hospital

Yes, that's right folks, yours truly has spent the past five days admitted to Katherine Hospital. 'Why?' I hear you ask. Well that's a tale in itself...

It's mustering season, which is when all the cattle are pushed into the yards to be processed. Cows down one race, calves down another, weaners another etc etc. I was working on the calf cradle, which is a mechanism for catching the little buggers and clamps them in so we can brand and tag and and castrate and worm and, importantly, vaccinate them against botulism.

There is a needle on a gun for this vaccination, and after getting bollocked by my evil boss I was a bit flustered and somehow managed to jab myself with this needle. I thought nothing of it at the time. I had, in fact, jabbed myself the day before and I was fine. However, this particular jab must have gone deeper then the other, seen as that night my hand started to throb with pain and Lionel had to give me two nurofen to dull the pain and let me sleep. The next morning I told my boss that my wrist was the most painful thing I've had since I dislocated my knee and how it just couldn't move. She put me on anti-biotics and painkillers, hoping that would end the matter.

However, by lunchtime that day, it became apparent that the anti-biotics weren't working, and so she said that if tomorrow it was no better I would hitch a lift with Lionel (who was going into Katherine that day anyway) and go to hospital. Fun times.

So I get to hospital and go to A+E and they begin to think that it's septic arthritis and even called the infectious diseases doctor in Darwin for an opinion. I get admitted and put on a drip for the anti-biotics. The first day the Doctor said I was to get transferred to Darwin to have an operation, but they decided against that and kept me in for observation as it seemed apparent that it might not be septic arthritis. 24 more hours of observation turned out to be a lot longer, as I stayed in for a further three days. Then yesterday, the Doctor said that my wrist was a lot better and that I could be discharged. I was so happy to hear that. There's nothing worse then being on your own in hospital with the threat of an operation hanging on you then being on the other side of the world and being on your own in hospital and having the threat of an operation hanging on you.

It was better at times, I had lots of phone calls - some from the expected and some from the unexpected (thank you Grandma, Georgina and Tracey :D) I spoke to Lionel for more then two hours a day, and generally really wanted to get back to work.

Unfortunately, I've not been able to do so. The Australian hospital system is very different to the one in England, and I wasn't told how to handle the Australian one. Before I went to Katherine, I was told by my boss that I can claim the bill onto Worker's Compensation, which is a well known thing here, since it's a injury sustained in the workplace. Apparently, when I was discharged I was meant to be given a form to give to my boss claiming that I am fit to work again but I wasn't given this. So now, I have to chase it up and ask them to fax it over, otherwise I'm 'unfit' for working.

It's a load of annoying things. Hmph.

Anyway, I'm on oral anti-biotics now and painkillers for the next week, and am counting down the days until I leave here (14 today) and start travelling! xD

Your arthritic buddy,

Nic

xxx