13. What Shall We Do Now??

When they took the plaster off they saw that it had been bleeding underneath but at least it wasn’t too bad. They cleaned it up and then Mr. B. had a look and asked me how it was and when I said it was no better, he said that he had no idea what to try next.

He did send me round to the physiotherapy department to have some treatment to strengthen it up again after the plaster. When I got round to the physios they were not impressed by what he had written which was ‘odd right ankle’.

After a few weeks waiting for my physio appointments, I asked them to transfer me to Hawkhurst Hospital and I went there once a week for a while and apart from being extremely painful it didn’t help at all.

I wonder what they will suggest next when I go back to the Conquest in July.

July arrived and the Registrar sent me for some new x-rays and then when they didn’t show anything exciting, he decided to inject my ankle with, I presume, steroids to see if that did something.

Sadly, the injection was useless so at my next visit in October Mr. B. told me the only possible treatment for my ankle, which is and I quote “shot to pieces”, would be either to replace my ankle or to fuse it and for this he would pass me on to his colleague Mr. H. So, we’ll see what this new guy says and when.

I saw Mr. H. in December (2002) and he decided that it was time we found out what was wrong so he will do a bit of arthroscopy and have a good look around inside. So now I’m waiting for another operation, I did think that I wouldn’t have too long to wait as it is to be done under day surgery but when I rang in March for an update, she told me that the wait was about 12 months. I rang again in August and was told that I may be called in October.

The date for my operation eventually came through for the 3rd December (only just under the governments’ 12-month deadline). I had my sterilising showers (one the night before and the other on the morning of the op.) and I’d checked twice that a bed was available for me.

So off we went in plenty of time, arrived at the hospital and I got checked in. I’d been poked, prodded, scribbled on, had an ECG and I’d put the rear ventilated gown on and so I was ready. Various surgeons and anaesthetists had been to see me and said everything was ready.

Then, Mr. H. arrived and said that a problem had arisen in that the morning list of operations (for another surgeon) was overrunning badly and they may not get to me.

At about 3.15pm he returned and said there was no way they could do my operation and he had been reviewing the x-rays that had been taken 2 weeks before and they showed a great degeneration in my ankle. So, he wanted to see me in clinic a.s.a.p. where we would discuss what could/should be done i.e., replace my ankle or fuse it, neither a very jolly prospect as these are both major operations.

Therefore, I needed to do some research on the Internet in order to get as much information as possible. At this rate I will soon be a real bionic woman.

I went to his clinic on 18th December armed with all my research on what could be done to knackered ankles the options seemed to be a) fuse it; b) replace it with a prosthetic or c) replace it with a cadaver transplant.

Option a) didn't appeal to me as it would probably be too restrictive and according to my research you needed about 3 to 4 months non-weight bearing after the operation.

So, when Mr. H. asked me what my opinion was I said that I had done some research and was a transplant an option to which he replied no (in a way that made me think that he wasn't too pleased with me asking this). As a transplant was out of the question, I said that I would opt for a replacement to which he agreed although he did say that I should lose some weight.

So, I decided that I would have a good Christmas and then knuckle down to losing weight. Even when we were on holiday over Easter I stuck to my diet and when I weighed myself when we returned, I had actually lost another 2 pounds over the previous couple of weeks. Also, when we returned, I discovered that my mobile phone was not working properly and that I actually had several phone messages including one from the hospital which was from admissions and they wanted me to ring them as soon as possible.

When I did ring the hospital and explained who I was she said that they had been told that as I'd had to wait a year for the operation that never happened it would not be fair to make me wait as long again and so my replacement operation was booked for 9th June 2004, considerably sooner than I was expecting. Also, I have to go to my pre-op check on 29th April.

The only thing of significance that happened during this hospital stay was that after the op., as the plaster dried, it got so tight I was in agony and I had to ask them to call a technician to at least cut the plaster a bit as it was restricting my circulation. The doctors were really annoyed that the cast had been cut and insisted that it was completely re-done, thankfully they left enough room inside for me!