Jump to content

Not Happy!


Gardian
 Share

Recommended Posts

So I've been having all sorts of tests over the last month or so - heart man, chest man etc. To their evident disappointment, they don't seem to have found that much wrong with me, as in it doesn't seem as though I'm imminently liable to flake out!

The chest man though, in seeming desperation, decided that he wanted a Polygraphie du Sommeil done - it would appear that this will detect whether I'm likely to stop breathing whilst asleep. Can be done with an overnight at the hospital, or turn up early evening & get wired up, then return in the morning.

Off I went, hissing with rain, got to the hospital, eventually got my etiquettes sorted out and went up to the ward. "Oh, we don't need the etiquettes now - you'll need to get them re-donetomorrow morning". Anyway, got all plumbed up - the nurse said that I'd better zip up my cardigan because I looked a bit like a terrorist !!

Set off for home, only 15 mins, but very very rural. Just five mins from home and In a split second I saw something about the size of a dodgem car coming in from my offside. Bloody great bang. I stopped 50m on and the bloke who was a further 50m back pulled up too.

"You OK?" he asked. "Much damage?" There was - probably getting on for €1k's worth. "Was it a sanglier?" I asked. It was and it bounced off and went off in to the undergrowth.

So ......... I'm sitting here with all this plumbing over my torso, with a thingy that I've got to stick up my trunk and make sure stays there all night. Then back to the hospital in the morning, fight the etiquette fight, and then hand over the plumbing. Then over to the carosserie to get a quote for the damage, always assuming that I haven't got a flat tyre in the morning.

Grumpy? Not at all.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is really bad luck.

The strange thing is that test is usually done overnight in Hospital in a 'clinique du sommeil'

http://cphg.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Centre-de-sommeil-Exp%C3%A9rience-CHBezier-J4-oct08.pdf

Last time I was in there (I wear a breathing mask at night with an apparatus that pushes in air to keep the throat open so you don't stop breathing and have sleep apnoea) it happened to be

La Journée Nationale du Sommeil'  and there was was a  team filming from France3, so I was filmed and interviewed in all that gear [:D]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear that, Gardian, really rotten luck! Did you need cognac when you reached home? Those pesky sangliers do a huge amount of damage around the area. Good luck with your results.

My husband had to go through many tests years ago when he did a very public faint in a London restaurant, as they thought it was his heart or something else pretty important, like his brain. He was banned from driving for several months, and was told by one specialist that once you got into the system you just went on until they found something - anything- wrong or until you got spat out at the end after every test doctors could think of.

His sleep apnoea test at Frimley, where he was also wired up and sent home, seems to have been far less interesting than yours, even without being targeted by a sanglier.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that Norman & GG.

The little leaflet that came with the test said "no alcohol", but I asked and the nurse said it would be alright to have a glass or two of wine, but not to overdo it. Cognac probably would have been!

Took all the kit back to the hospital this morning, then on to the carrosserie to get the fixing process started. "Did the sanglier provide his insurance details?" asked the bloke. Very drole.

In the light of day, there's more damage than I thought. He hit the front offside, bounced and then virtually ripped off the back bumper. Most of the panels will need replacing. The sanglier jumped off some high banking to my left - their eyesight must be quite poor. True?

Bizarrely, my daft neighbour insists that until not very long ago, you could go to the Gendarmerie and get an official report from them and claim against the Chasse's insurance for not being active or successful enough! Typical Michel.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Luxembourg if you hit (or are hit by) a sanglier or a deer, the Grand Duke pays as they are all 'owned' by him!

You report the incident to your insurance as usual and the repair bill is discretely taken care of with no loss of no claims

Just as well as there are masses of flocks of them around this year, just as it gets dark of course so you can't see them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Gardian"]

Bizarrely, my daft neighbour insists that until not very long ago, you could go to the Gendarmerie and get an official report from them and claim against the Chasse's insurance for not being active or successful enough! Typical Michel.[/quote]

Maybe not so bizarre. I mentioned your run-in with a sanglier to a couple of French colleagues who both said 'Oh but he can claim off the Chasse' Could be worth following up or perhaps your insurance agent would know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably not at 19.00 when it was dark though Pierre & WJT.

I suspect (and can the sense in) the possibility that you could claim if the Chasse were beating at the time and an an animal was driven in to your path. However by this time, the boys weren't around + it was a Tuesday and they don't operate on that day.

Well worth asking the question though and I will. Thanks.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Considerably better news!

Our insurer is Pacifica, done through Britline who we bank with. I was able to declare the accident online and within hours received a call from their local office confirming that I was covered, where to take the car to, would have a replacement vehicle and the level of the franchise (excess). Very efficient process.

Problem was that the franchise was €500, not the €250 I was expecting. On pulling out all my documentation, I realised that the franchise had gone up when we acquired this vehicle 18 mths ago. To be honest, my fault - I simply hadn't noticed.

Cried "foul" to Britline in the faint hope of getting a result, but with no great expectation. Then I started looking at a little brochure that had come with this year's renewal document - you know, the sort of thing you normally just throw away.

It talked about a cadeau de franchise (i.e. excess completely set aside) if you hadn't had a prang in the last 3 years. Rang Britline and they squared it with Pacifica within 10 mins.

It was blamed on a system error and of course it shouldn't have happened, but you can imagine that this is one happy customer. Car is booked in for damage repair next week.

Moral(s) of the story - (1) Read your insurance docs carefully, (2) Read those little booklets too & (3) Avoid large creatures, especially sangliers !!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Avoiding sangliers, as you well know is very very hard to do if they are suddenly in one's path.

I worried about the one I hit a lot, hoping it was OK.

And every time we drove along that road in the full year that followed, we could still see the tyre marks of what had been brand new tyres as I had tried to stop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
I picked up the car this morning after its damage repair.

To the untrained eye, its very difficult to be sure that there are no little dents they may have missed, but on face value it looks as though they've done a good job. Only problem is that the car has got those parking sensors in the rear bumper, which of course were damaged in the original prang. The fools didn't notice that the warning was coming up that the system was u/s (it beeps to tell you that there's a problem!) so one of the blokes spent half an hour trying to diagnose which sensor.

In the end it was "We'll order the part - bring the car back next week and we'll fit it".

Oh well, could be worse. The job will have cost €1500 they reckon.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...