So today I had my 6 month check-up. At nearly 11 months post op, this seems a bit strange, but this is the NHS we’re talking about and they do seem to operate within a space time dimension all of their own. I’m wondering if they just watch way too much Torchwood or something….
Anyway, I got there and found a space in the car park just outside the clinic – this in itself is amazing as it is normally an impossibility and I had put my wheelchair in the car ready for the several mile trek from the main cark park. OK, so maybe saying that it is several miles is a teensy bit of an exaggeration (which I have been told off for at least a million times) but it is certainly a pretty long schlep and not one I wished to struggle with. Of course, having found the space, I didn’t have enough change for the car park (isn’t it sinful charging patients to park to see a doctor?) so went inside to ask reception if they could change a tenner. As it happened, the petty cash lady wasn’t there and they had called out my name to go in before she got back. I have never seen the wheels of the NHS turn so fast, from arriving to leaving; including seeing the consultant only took 20 minutes!
So I saw the big man, the head honcho, and he told me he was very pleased with me. I got a bit of a telling off for doing too much too soon, but then he said he kind of expected it as he thought I was that kind of a person….well spotted that man! We had a bit of a chat about the nerve damage that I got during surgery and he told me that he expected most of the improvement to have taken place by now although things may still pick up a bit for anything up to 2 years. If it’s not better by the 2 year mark then I have to live with it. I actually told him that I thought some reduced sensation was a very small price to pay for the future that he’s given me….
He was very pleased that my coronal and sagittal balance has stayed good and has told me to watch out for one shoulder or the other dipping as that may indicate a shift in my top curve. However, even if it does get worse, since it doesn’t have the same life threatening/changing impact of the bottom curve, the decision to get it fixed (or not) will largely be left to me. I finally got the last of my restrictions lifted, so I can now go down the gym, lift weights, do deep core work and sit on my gym ball. All in all, it was very good news and I don’t have to go back for another 12 months!
Check back in on Monday when I will tell you what life is like when you get to that special 11 month stage….
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