My 6 week check!

Well, I had my 6 week check-up yesterday (yes, I do know that I am over 7 weeks, but this is the NHS we're talking about) and it was all very uneventful and rather unexciting. I didn’t get to see my surgeon, but since he is some kind of Scarlet Pimpernel type creature who only seems to be available to you if you pay him large sums of money to visit him privately, I wasn’t surprised. What I was a bit surprised by though was the fact that I didn’t even see another member of the surgical team, or even one of the doctors that I had seen when I was in hospital. Ah well, I guess they can all look at the x-rays later, unencumbered by the troublesome patient!

Anyway, the registrar that I saw examined the x-rays that I had taken and checked that none of that my current hardware had come loose. Thankfully it hadn’t although new bone growth (from the bone grafts) couldn't yet be seen. He seemed pleased with my general progress and recovery from the operation, telling me that they did most of these ops on teenagers (tell me something I don’t know), and that it all got much harder once you were past the age of 17! I guess I’m just a couple of years past ideal then…

There were really only two other pieces of news – a vertical line drawn on my most recent x-ray shows that I am still not quite straight, although now my vertical line passes through my SI joint (see http://healthgate.partners.org/images/si55550402.jpg) rather than through the outside of my hip. To say this is a massive improvement is an understatement.

As to the matter of the second op, well that is still quite a possibility, but given that I am now over 7 weeks post op, there is no rush to make the decision. In fact, he actually said that it would be best that I should recover fully from this one first which I was pretty pleased to hear. The concern is that my thoracic curve will act as a lever on the point where my hardware ends causing me problems in the future. They will monitor it closely and I get to go back to see him (or even the Scarlet Pimpernel) in 3 months time. At least the surgery is much less invasive than what I have had done, so every cloud has a silver lining and if it does prove necessary, then better to do it now before I get even older!!!

I do have one last thing to say and that is a really big "Thank You!" for all the flowers - just as one bunch seems to fade and die then another pitches up on the doorstep to take it's place. I am really, really grateful - so THANK YOU!