Mustn't grumble

Five days post left knee operation and I'm amazed how well I feel compared to the same period after my right knee surgery back in February. The experience has been completely different so I thought I'd give you all the gory details again. I was so stressed in the weeks leading up to Tuesday. I was mostly nervous of damaging my right knee but figured I might as well get it all over with and get back to normal asap. I trusted the Prof wouldn't do the surgery if he didn't think I could cope. I had a different registrar (Rob) and anaethetist (Jan) this time round so I guess that in itself will change things. Deutscher Jan did his best to keep me calm and was lighthearted (saying he'd swear in German if it'd help), but took four attempts to find a suitable vein to knock me out. I reminded him that I'd probably need another cannula for my post-op antibiotics that he promised to administer while I was under. He also said he'd give me a local 'block'...

Sorry for the radio silence, but there's only recently been anything newsworthy to report. The news I got a call two weeks ago yesterday to say that the hospital wanted to schedule my left knee operation for four weeks today and that my pre-operative assessment would be two days after! Are the cogs in your brain calculating the dates? ;) Initially, I was elated since I want to get both knees sorted so I can 'get back to normal'. I'm living in a kind of limbo where I can't really plan anything, so knowing that my second operation is imminent means I have a schedule and know that by this time next year it'll all be over. However. Hah. I'm terrified. I had really hoped that my right leg would be fully healed by now... I mean it has been almost ten months, but I'm still quite sore and stairs are still evil beings of torture. I keep telling myself that it's because I walk on a slant whenever I'm not wearing my specially adapted shoes (my left le...

Positive news Just over ten weeks post-operation and I'm doing really well physically. Since late last week I've been driving again and I even walked the dogs (with mum's help - big up my mum for being my live-in nurse for nine weeks) over the weekend.  I'm on a phased return to work as still can't sit in an office chair all day yet and work have been brilliant about it.  I still get the occasional spasm in my knee cap and I'm utterly exhausted and aching at the end of each day,  but I've ditched the Zimmer frame in favour of crutches that I only really need outside the house now. Stairs are still hard work but I don't have to ascend on my bum anymore so that's a plus! Literally the worst thing about the operation was the in-the-tummy anti-DVT injections,  I was so pleased on week six when they were over, they hurt something rotten and I looked like a bruised pin cushion! I've really started to notice how much longer my right leg is now, ...

So I went for a physio appointment today. The lady was very pleased with my progress. She said I no longer need to wear any bandages and gave me a few extra exercises to do. She also let me see my x-rays, shared here for your viewing pleasure. I am a bionic woman now.  Before surgery.  Notice the weird angles of my knees.  After surgery. Two visuals of right knee. Knee is so much straighter. I just can't quite believe how much metal is in there!  I'm guessing the weird fork things were part of the temporary cage. Nice clean break.  Like something off X-files. Here are the latest externals... Under my kneecap. Outside of my thigh. So this bit really hurts, it's just above the thigh wound. There is something under the skin that is really taut and pulls like crazy. Physio lady is going to ask Prof what it is. Bruising and swelling going down great.

I'm no angel. I freely admit that, but I do wonder how much of my behaviour stems from my experiences growing up. I am short. There's no denying it. And with being different, I have always been an easy target. Midget, titch, short-arse, you name it, it's been directed at me. Even folk that think they are being cute and remind me how small I am - eye-roll - don't help. I'd like to think I'm also pretty clever, not A* smarts, but a good B+ and being smart and a weirdo don't mix. I've never been very good at keeping my head down and liked putting my hand up in class when I knew the answers, again making me teacher's pet, blah blah. I am also about 50% deaf in my left ear and while I've had a silicone implant to try and build onto the little Auditory Ossicle that was deformed from birth, I still can't hear that well in a group which meant that teasing me came even easier. Oh and did I mention that I'm also as blind as a bat and have had l...

So it's now my 'day three' (operation day being day zero) and I'm almost back to normal.  Sort of.  The day of the operation went perfectly. I was in the OR at 9 am and settled in quote 'the best room in the whole hospital' with sweet and sour chicken by about 5pm (I think). I have been really privileged to have a private corner room with two huge windows and my own bathroom.  The mixture of anaesthetic and morphine and who knows what else meant that day zero was pretty easy.  As soon as I was in the recovery room in my delirious state I was put on a physio machine that kept my knee moving and I had that all night and most of day one and over night. It kept me awake quite a lot, not because it was particularly painful but because my leg kept jumping off it (rebelling) and I had to keep readjusting. And it was noisy and quite annoying as is the call bell. It was much easier using the machine than trying to bend my knee manually though. Even now I can only be...

Less than 36 hours to go until knee surgery of doom and I am getting more and more anxious. I've tried incredibly hard for the last five months to carry on as normal and stay positive but now that the day is almost here I am terrified. Not least what I should take to hospital with me, but how long I will be in pain for, how long the four wounds are going to take to heal and worst of all, whether the operation will actually work. It is technically experimental after all since they don't actually know for sure why I'm so sore. I received a letter from the NHS the other week apologising for not seeing me within their twelve week target. I don't know if that made me feel better or worse. I know the pressures they are under so am not resentful. My knee on the other hand seems to have taken on a personal vendetta and has gotten incredibly painful just recently. It's like hot needles appear out of thin air sometimes, but it's probably just in my head because I'm ...

I love food and beer/wine/whisky/rum. Most things... except rhubarb, celery and gin. No matter that I am less than five foot tall, my body thinks that I am the size of the average woman and can easily eat the same amount as my six foot tall husband. Of course that means I can easily get fat. At my worst - in my mid-twenties - I was 11st 4lb, a size 16 and so had to do something about it. I went to Slimming World, lost over two stone and decided I knew all the rules, so left the club. Of course, I've put weight back on, luckily not so much that I need a new wardrobe, but it's getting close and having knee pain makes for a vicious circle. I'm pain-miserable so I comfort eat, I can't do a lot of exercise because my knee hurts and my doc says losing weight will make my knee pain more bearable. What's a girl to do? Hopefully, post-surgery, I'll be in much less pain and will be able to get back to hiking up hills with the dogs and I'll be less inclined to com...

I know everyone has somewhere they've got to be, but rules are rules and laws are laws, and I'd really like for everyone to get to their destination with minimal stress and well, erm alive. I have cruise control on my car and whenever possible - especially on motorways - I set the cruise at the speed limit for that road and as respectfully as I can, make my way from A to B. I'm not a lane hog, but equally - unlike some vehicles I've seen - I won't weave back and forth from the slow to middle to fast lane repeatedly catching up on lorry after lorry and potentially getting stuck before accelerating like the clappers to pull out again. I like the idea of not increasing the chance of an incident, but more importantly not having to break and reset my cruise... :/  However, should I require use of the fast lane on a three lane motorway, where last I checked the speed limit is indeed still 70 mph, I will not break the speed limit or accelerate past the setting on my car...

I was born with hereditary Metaphyseal Chondrodysplasia, Schmid Type which means that I am very petite, am big boned and have various malformed bone structures. Most recently, I've discovered that I could have said 'yes' to those young minds that queried if I was a dwarf in my childhood, as this disorder does include short-limbed dwarfism. Obviously growing up I was as desperate to try and fit in as much as everyone else and adamantly denied being anything other than just a bit shorter than my peers. Of course, this wasn't the case and presently being in my late thirties and a good nine inches shorter than the average for a woman in the UK, I look up the nose or into the chest of pretty much everyone. The kink in my neck is alas the least of my troubles. Throughout the years I have struggled with back ache, sore hips, shoulder pain and most recently poorly knees. Most pains come and go, but unfortunately my right knee has decided it's not going to improve. So, n...