Part 1a
When I got to the Ringerike hospital at Honefoss I was again seen to very quickly, the tricky bit was moving me from the ambulance stretcher on to the CT bed, It took four nurses! The results from the CT scan were not good, I had fractured two vertebrae and one of the fractures was unstable.
I didn't find out exactly what I had done until I read my notes several days later, but I will try to describe it as best as I can here. Firstly I will give some very basic spine physiology. The spine is treated as being in four sections. From top to bottom: Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar and Sacrum.
From what I can gather from my notes, I had destroyed the TH10-TH11 (TH = Thoracic) facet joints and dislocated the lamina, which forms the walls of the spinal canal, which carries the spinal cord. I had also got a burst fracture facet joint dislocation at the TH11 level. I also had a burst fracture of the TH12 vertebra which meant that the main body of this was fractured.
The doctors told me that the fracture was indeed unstable, I assume this was because of the facet joint dislocation on TH11, and that it scored 5 points on the 'Telecis' scale. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out what this means.
All this meant that I would have to be operated on to stabilise my spine.
Unfortunately this could only be done at the main hospital in Oslo, which was another two hours drive away! I was not overjoyed by the prospect of another ambulance journey! They told me, however, that I would stay where I was until they were ready to perform my operation, which was a relief.
Thanks to www.paradechiropractic.com.au and www.indyspinemd.com for the images.