Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Destroy the Office

Jamie, who sits next to me in the office has started the process of moving out of the office early by destroying (accidentally) the binds on our window. he managed to rip it off the ceiling so that I won't go back up. I figure when they finally move out we won't care much about the stuff left behind but he's a little early.

So its hot in here as the sun is right on us for most of the afternoon. fortunate then that I'm off next week.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Admin

The Knee's too bad at the moment trying not to do anything to dramatic in case I bugger it up.

The preparation for the op is begining at the moment the whole thing seems to be mostly filling in forms I imagine the op will be quicker than the admin!

a huge pack arrived in the post including a lot of detail about how things happen and what can go wrong. I guess that you have to be fully informed before you go in , but its a bit EEK!

New Office

its a bit purple

apparently its a neutral colour in our company. Something about not clashing with the company colours!

It all very nice if a little unfinished at the moment. It's based above Victoria station and we share the building with the Met and the Daily Telegraph.
I was there for a meeting about new changes to our Customisation system and we had it in one of the new brand new rooms in the new building. the room was call Pong and like every other room at the new office it is named after retro computer games. I spotted the following rooms, Pong, Defender, JetPac, Elite, Glaxians, Centipede, Tetris and Asteroids.

A bit Geeky I know, but it is a very nice office. It should be nice to move in after I've had my op (everyone else will be moving in while I'm away on the 9th)

Monday, May 21, 2007

Nice Sofas and carpet

Well private is a bit different!

The Friday appointment with the consultant went smoothly and quickly. The place was very nice and we didn't have the hour wait like the NHS version. I even think the weather was nicer.

So he gave me the full physical again, basically bending my knee at funny angles until either it went click or started hurting. He said that its definitely a big tear to the cartilage and maybe some damage to the ligament. That means the cartilage is worst than we thought and the ACL is probably better.

The result of all this is two operations; one to cut out the cartilage and then much later one to fix the ligament.

So we fixed up a date for the first op. I will be going to the BUPA Hospital in Harpenden on the 4Th June.

It will be a day case, so no stay over night, but I will get a general anaesthetic while they do the op, which will be keyhole. This should reduce the pain and make the knee move more freely, rather than it locking up and not straightening completely, as it currently does.

I will be out of action for a couple of weeks, afterwards, while the bruising heals. This means that I'm probably going to miss uSwitch's move to the new offices. Hopefully the problems and the chaos will have died down by the time I get back (yeah right).

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Ring-a-Round and the NHS side step

I've gone private

Took a bit of phoning around to different secretaries in different hospitals, but I've got an appointment to see Mr Kitson, the consultant, this Friday at 4pm.

It at the same hospital, just a different wing. It had to be the same hospital because though a little slight of hand the records from the scan are available only if you stay at the hospital. It seems that the NHS don't allow you to transfer your records to a private hospital and make you go through the whole process again. Fortunately we may be able to get around this as I'm not moving hospital, just moving within the hospital.

It's call the Elizabeth House wing and according to the official NHS map its just around the back.

So hopefully things will start moving very fast and I will be sort real soon

Monday, May 14, 2007

Meniscus Tear, er that will be bad news then.

Bad news


This whole being injured thing is a very frustrating business I've been putting up with a wobbly knee for about five months now and I just want to be able to walk a bit faster.
The visit was quite frustrating as well with a long wait of over an hour and then about a three minute talk before it was all over again. Many thanks to my Mum for driving me there and waiting with me.


The doctor said that the MRI was inconclusive about the ACL, but showed that there is a meniscus tear Apparently this is the pad between the bones that acts like a shock absorber
He said that I should have a bit of keyhole surgery to cut out the bad bit of the cartilage and so they can put in a camera to have a look at the rest of the knee and work out what state the ACL is in

so I will have to have two lots of surgery and so two lots of recovery.

Checking on the web once I got home, about a meniscus tear, a site said they normally cut out the torn bit as there is no blood flow to that area so no chance of it healing.

So the doctor says we should get me in for an operation. I told him I've sort out some private cover when he started talking about getting me in for the surgery. he gave me the business card of the lead consultant for the clinic a Mr Kitson and said I should ring the number on the card and book an appointment to see him. At which point that ended the NHS' involvement in the process and with it the meeting, he wished me good luck.

back home and I call the number on the card and unsurprisingly I get the answerphone.
so its stop start again as I said very frustrating...

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Uncle duties

Great news !

I got a phone call, while at work, from my sister, Claire.
She rang to say I will be wanted for my Uncle duties around about the 25Th Nov as she expecting again

Congratulations to Claire and Ed.
Brilliant News...

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I got a text this morning from my Mum saying that a letter had arrived from the hospital. Hurrah! so rather than wait until the evening, I rang home and Mum read it out.

I'm off to hospital next monday morning, hopefully to finally find out the damage and some idea of what it will take to get my leg fixed.