Yesterday I had a fall and I was on my own. Thankfully this week my care agency went live with a trial of an SOS watch which monitors my pulse, temperature and steps; it all has an SOS alarm and a falls detector.Last night I was home alone and my legs went numb and I had a fall and couldn't get myself up. Normally I'm fine because I live with my parents so I got myself into a bit of a muddle so I pressed my SOS alarm as there's a malfunction with the falls detector at the moment on my watch. I got a call from one of the care managers and there wasn't any carer's available to come out to me so I was advised to call 999, but I said that I'd call 111 first and see what they say and there's nothing that GP out of hours would be able to do. So I called 111 and they sent an ambulance out to me. In my fall I had dislocated my shoulder and my hip had subluxed and I was in a bit of pain and as a result my myoclonic seizures where playing up alongside the fact that my legs had gone numb. I managed to wiggle to the door to get it open and sat and waited for the paramedics to arrive. The crew that came where brilliant and I was there second hypermobility call out of their shift. They went with my suggestion of entonox to try and ease the pain and get my joints back in place and I'd trapped and nerve in my shoulder and they gave me some of my own oramorph and later co-codamol. After a while my pain was better and my joints where in a better shape that when the crew first arrived. They then got me onto the lift cushion to get me up off the floor to minimise and further injury. By this point about an hour had passed and the paramedics where happy to go at my pace. Getting me off the floor and rubbing my legs started to get some feeling back into them and we managed to gingerly with their help get me to the sofa. They them made me coffee and got me some biscuits as my blood sugars was a bit low and got me settled for a night on the sofa. I had the sign a the tablet to say that i was declining a trip to A&E - from the outset I made it clear that I didn't want to go there and there was little they could do for me there anyway and I would be much happier to get my pain better controlled and off the floor and onto the sofa. It's kind of restored my trust a little bit in paramedics after a year of receiving such poor care. I then put the TV on and settled down for a night on the sofa. But having my SOS watch gave me piece of mind that there is help should I need it and, it was just unlucky that the night I had my accident was the night Dad and Mandy was away!
