Consultant Appointment

A record of my walking for 'physio' purposes

My consultant appointment originally scheduled for Monday was changed at the last minute to 14:00 today.  I saw José Blanco who undertook my original operation back in November 2015.  I walked in, spun around, and looked at him and he said that I could now go home as cured!

I had a lovely chat with José explaining in detail what had gone wrong with the original repair and how they had carried out their 'revision'; he showed me all the x-Rays and how the Dynamic Hip Screw had migrated vertically upwards - quite amazing to see.  We went into all sorts of detail about torsional, compression and shear loads; we seemed to have drawings everywhere of how things had been repaired (that's a revision); I am now very happy that I understand what has been done and the life expectancy of the replacement hip - José is rather hopeful that it may possibly see me into the long box - I don't suppose it will burn very well - but not to hesitate to shout if something doesn't seem to be right.

A Dynamic Hip Screw (bottom) in the
Fracture Clinic 'Museum'

José also explained why, in his opinion, it was right that I was prevented from weight-bearing for so long originally - 7-Nov to 21-Dec and it was all to do with the location of the original break.  He said that if I had been allowed to weight-bear earlier that repair would have failed earlier; preventing me from weight-bearing for the period they did gave, in his opinion, the repair the best possible chance. The fact that it failed was, with hindsight, almost inevitable.

I talked to José about the lack of physio.  He said that I should have been offered physio and a carer.  He kindly offered to arrange physio but as I had arranged my own and as I had made such good progress we decided fairly quickly that the moment had passed as it had for the need for a career.  I am so pleased I have Liz and can call on her to help when needed as it most certainly was when I was discharged from hospital on 21-June.

He finished up by giving me a big kiss and saying that seeing me so mobile after all these months made his job so very satisfying - that's good news. I must say in hindsight it has been a fairly tough eight and a half months.

My next appointment is not until sometime in April-2017 - I must say I am delighted at that because I am slightly heartily sick of being prodded, poked and interviewed by the medical profession.