Some years back, in the early hours, I got out of bed to go for a wee. The next thing I knew, I fell to the floor, landing on my coccyx.

I had fainted, apparently quite common when getting up from the bed. The body is at it lowest state during the night, the blood pressure being at its lowest, resulting in blood leaving the head.

I lay on the passage floor, paralysed, for more than six hours, unable to move, eventually concluding I had broken my back. Fortunately, it was in August, so it wasn't cold.

I managed to crawl back to the bedroom, where I had a telephone, and called my doctor. I suppose, in retrospect, I should have called 999. The receptionist said "Come down in three days' time." "I've broken my back," I said, which was ignored, so I got no visit.

I lay in bed for many days and when I got to the surgery, with great difficulty, the locum who I saw asked me to move my left and right feet. "No," he said, "you haven't broken your back." I told him what had happened. "Oh, yes, it's common. When you go to the toilet, sit down, don't stand up to do it."

When my own doctor returned after several months I insisted on an X-ray, which showed I had suffered an impacted vertebra - I have the certificate to prove it, although this was very reluctantly written out for me, even though I had to pay for it.

Thankfully, I have recovered fairly well, though not through being given any treatment. I had a week of bed-rest and a considerate employer.

-Reg Moores, moores@pavilion.co.uk