30 November 2010 - the accident

After a long weekend in England visiting family and going to the wedding of friends, it was a very early start, around 4am, leaving the house to set off for Manchester airport and a 7am flight to Frankfurt.

Stepping out of the front door carrying bags in both hands, I lost my footing going down the steps and slipped, falling straight backwards and hitting my back on the steps. Ironically, one of the bags was a rucksack and if I’d only been wearing it, instead of carrying it……….

It was pretty painful, but I could get up straight away and move around. So, after lying down for a few minutes and deciding that, as everything seemed to be working ok and I could sit down without it hurting too much, we should drive to the airport to return the hire car, check in for the flight and see how it went.

We got to the airport safely, returned the keys for the hire car and got through to the departure lounge without any problem, it was painful walking and moving around, but I could seem to manage to find a comfortable position when I sat down.

Everything went ok getting onto the 7am flight, we were the last onto the plane and were offered seats with extra leg room at the front of the aircraft – the pilot told us it would be around ten minutes to have the plane de-iced and we’d be off. Ten minutes or so later, he told us that Frankfurt airport was closed because of snow, the plane was flying to Norwich instead and we were all retuning to the terminal.

Made it back to the check in area and – excellent service considering it was a budget airline – within half an hour or so we had new boarding passes for the afternoon flight to Frankfurt.

Still no let up on the pain, so got to the helpdesk in the airport and asked them if there was anything they could do to help. Within quarter of an hour, a paramedic arrived and filled in a long form; he seemed to agree with our conclusion that it was just bruising and I needed to keep moving to stop it from stiffening up. He said that ambulances were very busy that morning and if we wanted to be on the safe side, we could take a cab to the A&E at the hospital a few miles from the airport – he didn’t seem too concerned though (I got the distinct feeling he thought I was wasting his time and that he had some real emergencies he should be taking care of).

Spent the next few hours (it felt like more than a few though!) around the airport, visiting all of the terminals, reading newspapers and eventually took off late afternoon; the plane was much fuller this time (with lots of others from the cancelled early flight) so no chance of an extended leg room seat at the front.

Landed on time in Frankfurt, took the bus across the airport to the railway station and caught the train home, changing in the city centre. Carrying the suitcase was painful but wearing the rucksack seemed to be fine. Got home early evening and everything seemed to be ok, the pain wasn’t getting any better though, so went to bed and seemed to manage to find a position where it didn't hurt too much.