Yesterday afternoon I was on the way to the chiropracter to have a new set of X-Rays taken. The idea was to have a comparative set of X-rays to compare to the first one he did just over a year ago. This seemed valuable as proof of the decline in my musculoskeletal condition which, remaining untreated so long, has gotten bad.

As I approached a junction my neck had a spasm and twisted round to the right. I had just started pulling in to the correct lane and I lost sight of the road. There was a parked low loading truck in my way and I didn’t see it. My beautiful Land Rover is a write off, I suspect, and immediately afterwards I was in agony, having hit the small truck at 10 - 15 miles and hour, and an ambulance was called. If you read the story below you will realise I was not keen to go to Newham Hospital but gave up my argument with the ambulance driver who was having none of it pretty swiftly.

Then the police arrived. One of them had an attitude right from the start. Later he admitted he had been one of four officers who had pulled me wrongly a couple of months ago and clearly gotten in some trouble for it. When my neck was strapped and I got out of the car I felt a desperate need to pee, as I usually do as I suffer neurological impairment to the muscles of the pelvis and subsequently incontinence.

I said to the ambulance driver I have to pee. “Wait til you get to hospital”, said the police officer. I couldn’t wait. “No I have to go now I’ll pee against my car”, I replied, and turned and did so. “Can he do that?”, asked the ambulance driver. “You dirty little shit”, the officer exclaimed.

As I turned round I said I was diabled and incontinent and he had no right to address me in that manner. “Say what?” he asked rhetorically, “no-one heard anything”. “No, no-one heard anything”, said the ambulance driver.

After they put me in the ambulance I had to wait there while the police Officer checked with someone if he could breathalyse me whilst I was strapped up anmd in a head brace. I had told the ambulance crew that I had had one can of beer over an hour before. When they came in to do it the officer had a look of glee on his face - “gotcha”, it seemed to be saying. It took three attempts to achieve a strong enough breath for the machine. I explained to the officer I had trouble with my diaphraghm and couldn’t breath hard. He said I “wasn’t trying” implying he knew when someonme was faking the severe diaphraghmatic problems I suffer.

The breath test was clear. The officer looked upset. “You don’t remember me but I’ve met you before”. Then he said he had been one of these four idiots with nothng better to do on a wet saturday morning than harass a disabled man. The penny dropped. I turned to the ambulance driver and said “I told you I had one beer. I don’t do lies. Whatever this guy thinks of me he’s wrong - I work with the police and thats why he hates me because his inspector told him he did wrong”.

After this ten minute delay I was driven rather roughly to Newham General. At least this time they did take X-rays. After assuring me nothing was broken I was discharged.

I suppose it is one better than wasting three days of my time. But as I was admitted to Newham General on Saturday because of my spine and discharged Tuesday because I’m a hot potatoe, and on the way to the chiropracter to get X-rays my self they had failed to take, these ones must be the most ironic ever taken.