Operation round two

Well I'm packed and ready for a very early start tomorrow. I have to be there at 7 am and with any luck the operation should be early tomorrow. I've been saving the new Harry Potter to read so I probably won't care if there is a bit of a wait.

Time for a good nights sleep...

Mens Fashion

Met up with Colin last night for a beer and a chat.

He's grown himself a set of side burns!

Very 1970's

A little reunion

We had a little IA skiing reunion on Saturday

Jason organised a drink at a Cuban bar near where I used to work in Holborn. It was quite a good little get together with nine of us. Everyone else has pretty much recovered from all the skiing with just a couple of people having some physio for sore knees. It's good to hear no one else had to cut their trip short.

Walking back from the station I had the following three thoughts.

1) Watton has a bit of a wet dog smell to it when its late and after its been raining. (Well the station at least.)

2) Can't remember quite what the second point was, but I'm sure it was quite profound.

3) I really want to go back and finish the instructor course

New team

Well last week they sort of sorted out what'll be doing at work and what team I'll be looking after.

I'm being given the Business As Usual team, which looks after the many small changes and pieces of work that have to be done in order to keep the site running.

They messed up sorting this all out as the Management had give me and others the impression I was starting on the new Credit Scoring project but they changed their minds again as they decided not to give it to someone who might be a bit rusty at running a team (I last officially ran a team back at the end of 1999).

Also they managed to cock things up even more by telling nearly everyone in the department about the changes (the whole department is being shook up) so I first find out whats going on from the company grapevine.

It's not the change in teams that annoys me, I'm not bothered what the team does I just want to be running one. It's that I keep finding out stuff from other people that I should be hearing from my managers first.

New moves

Went to the new Physio last night, called Ian, and he gave me some new exercises to work on to build up the muscles before the op.

1) Kneel down and then sit back so that your backside is touching your heals.
2) Standing on one foot, the bad leg, and practice balancing. When that's simple, do it with your eyes closed.
3) Standing on one foot again bend the knee so that you go down. Keeping your back straight and other leg off the ground. This one is done near something to steady yourself in case you start to fall over.

The first one is a bit painful as I get most of the way there, short about an inch, but the pain is in both legs.

The second is fine no trouble at all.

However the third one... boy does it hurt. I can only go down a little way before it hurts and the whole leg starts to go wobbly. so I must be doing me some good. Compared to the other leg I've got about 12 inches to go not that I expect to be anyway near that for a long long time.

I'll be doing them at work, waiting for the train and probably down the Pub!

Anniversary

Today it's six months since the accident. A long time, I'm mobile now and can walk around fairly normally, not fast, but I can turn and twist a bit without pain. I'm not completely stable until I have the final surgery next month.

I was remembering back to just after it happened when I couldn't put any weight on my leg without it giving way. It was hard just to cross the room make a cup of tea and get back to the bed.

Now-a-days it gets a bit tricky getting through security doors at work (You need three arms with the stick, the pass and the door handle) and moving around on moving trains.

It will be nice to pick up a bit of speed when I, say, need to cross a road quick.

Trains

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhh

Haven't actually managed to get to the physio yet, mainly last night due to our wonderful local rail service. I'll be trying to go again tonight. Need to build up the muscles and tendons a bit so the recovery from the sugery is a bit quicker.

Excess Charge

I've got the final bit of surgery sorted for 1st Aug. It's an early start I've got to be there at 7am this time with a morning operation. But at least this time I won't have to fast as long as I will have been asleep.

The official name(s) of the operation are

W7420 Autograft anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

W8230 Arthroscopic meniscal repair

W9012 Therapeutic local anaesthetic/aspiration - large joint - single

the insurance company is happy to pay for the hospital, the anaesthetist and the physio but the because the consultant is capped by they will only pay the first £1136 of his bill. Fortunately the estimate is £1200 so I will only have to pay £64. I was thinking it was going to be a lot more so this is very good.

Found my box

Well of course it was the nearest one possible. Just across the aisle in the section next to us. I got a little bored at lunchtime and decided to dig through some of their boxes. In the first box under some bits and piece I spotted a familar cup shape lump and digging down found my stuff.

During the big pack up it looks like the guys found some bits and pieces from other people, at the end and just put them in the box. So when they came to look for the box it they didn't recognise it. Of course the box still isn't labeled correctly

So the whole team is happy except for Jamie who's on holiday and will get a surprise when he gets back.