12. Back To Knife Men (2)

When I went to the orthopaedic clinic in January, I saw Mr. S.’s registrar and he asked me lots of questions to ascertain how bad my neck problem was.

One of his questions was whether I had any problems in my legs or feet that may be caused by my neck. I replied that it was difficult to know if there was any tingling or anything else as my ankle was too painful to tell.

He asked to look at my ankle and when he saw how swollen it was he sent me for some x-rays. On my return he showed the x-rays to Mr. S. and then they had a long discussion and decided to get me in for day surgery to do an arthrogram and inject something to see if that helped and then take it from there.

When they had finished discussing me they noticed that Mr. B. had seen my ankle the previous year and had given it a steroid injection. They told me that etiquette prevented them from doing anything without Mr. B.’s agreement. So, I then had to make an appointment with him. (Down another snake.)

I actually saw Mr. B.’s registrar who poked and prodded my ankle and compared this year’s x-rays with last year’s and noticed there was a bit of deterioration but he couldn’t see anything that would explain why it was so swollen and painful. He asked Mr. B. to come in to give his opinion and once he’d remembered me, we had a bit of a laugh and then they talked about my ankle.

They decided that they couldn’t treat it until they knew what the problem actually was so they told me I should have an MRI and possibly also arthroscopy. From the scan etc., they should find out whether the problem is inside the joint or outside then they would know what to do. Mr. B. did mention that the MRI might show that my ankle problem is not arthritis at all but something called Pigmented Villonodular Synovitis (PVNS for short).

So, it’s back to the electric doughnut for me.

When more than a week had gone by without my appointment letter arriving, I rang the radiology department to see if they could give me an idea of when my date with the doughnut would be. I was told that the MRI waiting time was about 5 months (about August) at the moment and they would send me an appointment nearer the time.

I decided to have a look on the Internet to see if I could find anything out about PVNS, which I had never heard of, I found a few sites with messages from people all over the world. Most of the messages were patients complaining about how little is known of this condition.

It is actually a benign tumour of the synovitis. I also discovered that it is quite a rare complaint and most sufferers get it in the knee. There are not many sufferers in this country but there was one in Maidstone who had an operation at the Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore Middlesex.

A couple of weeks later I thought I’d ring up about the MRI again to say that I wanted to book a holiday and I didn’t want it to clash with my appointment. The person I spoke to said there was little chance of that as the waiting time was currently about 8 months (about November). I was very upset by this but what could I do, I was on the list for cancellations.

Then on the 10th July they rang me to say they had a cancellation so could I come for my MRI the next day. Obviously, I said yes. I then rang the hospital to get an appointment with Mr. B. for the results and the first available slot was in October.

I decided to see him privately to get the results, as I couldn’t wait until October to find out what is wrong with me. I’ll keep the October appointment until I know I don’t need it.

The MRI showed that I do not have PVNS so it’s back to square one with no idea what is wrong with my ankle. Mr. B. decided to get me in for day surgery to have a look inside my ankle but even he didn’t have a clue about what my problem was. It’s a good job my ankle/foot was so swollen as I’m sure everyone would think I was making it up.

The first date I was given for my op was 1st October, at the little hospital in Bexhill, but as I’m on blood pressure pills, they decided that they couldn’t do it there in case anything went wrong so it would have to be re-arranged at the Conquest.

I thought I would have to wait ages but in fact the new date came through for 25th September.

I had to go for my pre-op checks and they gave me some anti-bacterial shower stuff so that I could use it once the night before and again on the morning of my op.

When we woke on the morning of my op., we saw on the news that there had been a fire at the hospital. When I rang, at about 7:30 am, to check it was ok for me to come in they said they weren’t sure what was happening because of the fire and if I could hold on, without eating anything, they would ring me back when they knew a bit more.

They rang back at about 10:40 am and said that I should come in immediately and they could do me. I had the world’s fastest shower and Bob took me down there. We arrived at 11:05 and Bob returned straight away in order that he wasn’t late picking Max up. I went to the ward and they showed me to my bed, I got changed and was examined by all sorts of people. I went down to theatre at about 12:30 pm and I was back about an hour later. When I had come round sufficiently, I rang Bob to prove that I was still here and told him to come and pick me up.

When the doctor came to see me, he said they had removed a rather large fatty lump, which they had sent for tests. He did say that it was unusual to have such a large fat lump on an ankle.

At the clinic 2 weeks later, the doctor told me that the lump was just a lipoma or fatty lump and nothing sinister but he couldn’t really see much as the wound had not healed sufficiently.

A couple of days later my ankle, which had been weeping ever since the dressing came off, burst into tears and soaked my sock. I went straight down to my GP and she said it was infected and so I was on antibiotics.

I had 4 courses of antibiotic tablets and a session on an antibiotic cream, none of which seemed to shift the infection. 6 weeks after the operation my GP took a swab to send to the pathology lab and they discovered that I had the Proteus bug, which I understood was quite nasty.

Proteus stayed with me for another couple of weeks but fortunately it had departed by the time I went for my next check up at the hospital. I told the doctor about the infection and he said that getting Proteus was most unusual (it seems everything about me is unusual).

Then the doctor said that they really didn’t know what was wrong with me, as the removal of the lump had not helped much. He then asked if I had ever injured my ankle and I went through the story again of how I sprained my ankle in January 1998. He said that this was probably the cause of my problem but he wasn’t sure what he should do.

He suggested putting it in plaster for a while to see if being immobilised helped. I said okay and off I went to get plastered. It’s a good job that Bob came with me, as I was then unable to drive. I was hoping I’d only have the plaster on for a little while but the first available appointment was not until the end of January 2002. So, I really got plastered for this Christmas.

Sadly, when I went back, I had to say it hadn’t helped, as it is still painful under the plaster.

 

I’ve Got A Problem

I’ve got a problem with my ankle

It’s painful and swollen quite a lot.

I don’t know what is wrong with it

I wonder what I’ve got.

They tell me I’ve got something

And then they change their mind.

They do all sorts of scans and x-rays

But nothing can they find.

Pigmented Villonodular Synovitis

Was what they said I had

Then they it’s arthritis

No wonder I’m going mad.