Never broke a bone in my life, till Wednesday.

In the deluge of rain, on the acreage, my foot just seemed to go from under me, it twisted back under my leg in a position I could only imagine the most double jointed of yogi experts could even attempt I knew instantly it was broken, the pain.

One of the teens was home, but couldnt hear me screaming for help due to his music playing so dark sitting by a rising creek the only help I had was the aussie sheep dog trying to help me bum shuffle up stairs to the stage where the teen finally came out - pissed off too I had wrecked his afternoon of chilaxing

Ambulance great, arrive at hospital introduced to morphine, x rays show two breaks and the need for metal to repair it. Suddenly all medical staff disappear we are asked not to look as a road trauma patient comes in, with just a curtain between us she dies 20 minutes later

Admitted to a ward and am fasted for 4 days and by 8pm each night told I didnt get to the top of the surgery list. In agony by now, sciatica playing up as I could not leave bed for 4 days! The public hopsital system seems financially broken. 4 times while there they came to my bed and almost pleaded for us to pay private ( for emergency public treatment by student docotrs in a public ward) to 'help the system' 'you can see how bad it is' . I gave in, as long as they put it in writing I would get no gap fee bills. Keep your private insurance people !! OMG desperate situation.

Have to say about 90% of the nurses are brilliant people who do so much and but some of the patients seem to treat them badly, they are so busy its obvious but some patients just carry on like they have one patient to look after not a whole ward.

I was in a room with only 2 beds and the other patient was a english gentleman, despite all the drama and pain, we were rolling with laughter at times, some of the nurses loved a good laugh and there were some crazy moments Probably stopped me going insane during the 4 day surgery wait.

Discarged now and totally bamboozled on how you get through 12 weeks ( i think) of being legless.

I have adapted a office chair to help me speed round the polished wood floor, so I can cook, do laundry, work on computer, get to loo.

Thinking why cant I exercise from floor/chair, I dont want to get fat due surely thats safe as long as I dont throw the offending leg around.

Is it legal to drive with a cast?? Once pain subsides and I am off the A class drugs they prescribed, is that allowed.

Its going to be a long 3 months and on thursday I was supposed to commence the renovation of a house.

Blimey thats a bit of a surprise. No suggestions that I can think off, just get well soon.

Cant think of any energy burning activities whilst flat on your back Must be something you can do.

It was a total shock, one second fit and healthy, 2 seconds later life on hold for 3 months...

Nurses said broken bones in wet weather are very very common, fit healthy people just walking, putting the bins out, whatever normal day to day activity... there was a 40 year old guy in there with same as me, but not quite such a bad break, he was just walking from his car into a shop.

Thongs seem to be the biggest contributor, dangerous footwear at the best of times.

Good grief, you don't do things by halves!

Drop tiddlypom a PM, she was non-weight bearing on her leg for what probably seemed like forever, I'm sure she'll have some tips (just in case she doesn't see this thread)

Good luck with it - our family would be stuffed if I couldn't drive.

That is completely untrue. As a private patient in a public hospital you are treated by the consultant (of your choice) same as if you were in a private hospital. And at no time would you be treated by "student doctors". You may have some care by interns, residents and registrars, but students are never allowed to treat any patient - they are in hospitals to observe only. The junior doctors (interns and residents) treat patients only under the supervision of the senior doctors (registrars and consultants) in any hospital, public or private.

And don't fool yourself that there are no junior doctors or students in a private hospital either. Plenty of them go to private hospitals to train. They're supervised by consultants at private hospitals; the only difference is that in a private hospital your care is overseen by the consultant of your choice and not dictated by who is on-call for the ward on the day you're admitted.

Hope your leg heals soon.

How did this work out? I am utterly terrified of being admitted to a public hospital, bullied into going private and being bankrupted by gap fees
I had gap fees of 3K for a very minor elective operation a few years back, but for a major trauma presumably these can go through the roof?
I am not sure how often this happens, or what one is supposed to do if you can't afford gap fees.....
Congratulations on being so controlled and single minded whilst in pain though!

Because it was an emergency I was admitted to a public hospital. Once there I was xrayed and admitted and 'on the surgery list'. 4 times including at admission I was asked if I wanted to add my private fund. I was hesitant beacause of gaps, and of course the treatment was all going to be public hospital. No private room, no choice of doctor, I was in the public system.

We were told surgery would be the next morning, but it was actually on saturday, ( 4 days later!)

They then brought round a leaflet explaining how using your private insurance benefits the hospital FINANCIALLY. There wasnt in my situation any benefit to me at all. .

Then a staff member from admin came and pushed the matter again, by now the 4th time. They said most people wont use private in public due to the gap so she has been employed to encourage people to give the private number and therefor bill the fund, but to guarantee no gap will be charged to the patient.

In writing, " please be assured there are no out of pocket expenses for patients using their PH insurance through the patient Option liason officer service while in XXX general public hopital. Her name and phone number.

After that I agreed, I dont feel that happy about it but really they were not dropping it, and I was going slightly insane after not be allowed to move off bed for 4 days while waiting for the surgery.

I assume QLD is desperate for medical funding, but she said she used to do the same job in NSW.

All I can advise is for gawd sake get it in writing.

My partner was going to give them the number as he could see I was in agony and you can only imagine being on a surgery list and fasting for 4 days then being told you didnt make the list each day, it was distressing for him to even watch me like that. But I still wanted it in writing the gap fees can be terrifying.

Hopefully my contribution helps qld health but if I get a gap bill they will be getting it right back!! but I dont think we will get one.

Jad, where can I send flowers? Get well my lovely.

OK so from here on in for the next 3 months .... lots of couch sitting and frustrations. I snapped my achillies tendon a bit under 2 years ago. Went private in the end as they said an achillies can wait a month before they need to sew it back together in the public system. So 1 month in the boot without removing the foot, crutches for 3 months and in the boot for a total of 5 months. My accident happened in October, just as summer started, so your saving grace is you've got the winter in a cast. Though one saving grace I had was that it was my left leg and I drive an automatic so I could still get around. Other than that, be patient, and let it mend. I can no longer play quick movement sports but I do run, cycle and ski. Bone breaks tend to mend well and it shouldn't stop you from doing everything you did before. Just look out for infection - good luck.

You won't get a bill and I'm sure they told you to send it to them if you did
. It happened to me in NSW and apart from no gap I got a free TV!

When my son broke his leg a few years back here in Queensland, he was triaged into the public children's hospital, we then opted to go private so that he could go into a private room. The orthopaedic surgeon who did his surgery is the same guy who has a private and public clinic at the Mater. There were no private rooms available so he ended up on the public ward after his surgery anyway. We then had to visit the surgeon at his private rooms for the aftercare which left us with gap fees to pay - should have just gone public all the way, the care would have been no different.

If it's any consolation, my girlfriend phoned yesterday with a virus so her orthopaedic list was looking like it may have to be cancelled today - she works privately so all of those patients may have their surgery put off too. Unfortunately not enough doctors to actually cover the workload.

Hope your leg gets better soon - maybe there's a "dial-a-hunky male nurse" service to come in to do your bed baths.

You do not have a choice of consultant or anything else if you are admitted as a EMERGENCY patient.

I had no choice of consultant, room, or anything else. That was made clear, even If I paid private my treatment would be no different.

The collection of my private funds ( just explaned it in previous post ) seemed to be purely to help relieve the burden on medicare.

The surgeon who operated on me I assumed was a student, maybe Intern would have been a better guess. I assumed student as for 10 years my kid went to the dental hospital and we always got surgery by doctors in training supervised by a consultant. You are not told student, intern or anything else, just Dr XXX's team.

Good someone knows what I am talking about, and yes she did write down her name to send any bills back which I certainly will if they come.

As for TV's $10 a day for a telly that was so old you would not have got a fiver for it in a garage sale Not even digital, it only picked up 4 channels, but at least the roomy and I could watch the news.

Would that be 7,9 and 10 then.....I hope your roomie doesn't like A Current Affair?

Thanks buddy.

4 days of fasting is interesting, would get one tiny meal between 8 pm and midnight then fast again. My stomach has shrunk, I boiled an egg this morning and it was like tackling a massive meal I imagine this is what gastric band surgery does

No doubt this wont last but OMG if anyone wants to lose weight chuck yourself in a creek, break leg, got to overcrowded hopsital, starve and bingo, new you