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.

Company Cloak and Dagger

Ah I was begining to think since I've come back that I've been working for a different company

It was a case of loads of people I don't recognise and loads of stuff happening that I've no idea whats going on. It all looked quite business like.

Well the old Company reappeared this morning. Gordon said that Richard was planning on switching me to a different project next Monday, today being Thursday. This is the first I've heard about it, Gordon wasn't allow to tell me, although its clear he has been dropping hints for most of the week now.
On the other hand noone told my current manager or team leader who had rather assummed I'd be working for them and had planned accordingly.

I figure I'll carry on working for my current project and ignore this until I get more conformation.

The new project would be my first official team lead at the Company, which being at the planning stage means I'm wouldn't actually be in charge of any developers straight away.

Stress

Ok so there it was all going a bit too smoothly

The new consultant is what's call capped by AXAPPP with basically means the insurance thinks he charges too much and will only pay what they think is right.

Also the hospital seems to have got mixed up and booked me another appointment with Kitson when they were meant to book one with Mr Parmar.

Looks like the appointment is ok for next thursday. I guess the hospital where just having problems with there computer.

A waiting for the train

This morning while I was standing on the platform at Watton station waiting for my train into London, something quite unusual happened.

It was a lovely sunny morning, one where the heat from the sun, nicely balances the cooling of the wind. The bird were singing all around and now and then there was the sound of a car going down station road. The sky was the sort of blue and cloudy like you see at the start of the Simpsons and in the middle of it was a red and white plane doing acrobatics!

It did some loops and barrel rows, a couple stall climbs and some quarter turns before flying off to the north.

A pretty cool thing to watch for five minutes before the train arrived

Goodbye Mr Kitson

I had my meet with the consulant to check my progress and talk about the next lot of surgery. It didn't quite work as planned and I we didn't fix a date for the next surgery.

He filled me in on what happened in the surgery and said I would need my ACL replaced. I got some nice(?) pictures of the inside of my knee. However he doesn't do the type of acl replacement that I need, because I'm sporty (I told him about the ski instructor course) I should have the ACL replaced with a section of my hamstring.

So I'm being refered on to Mr Parmar who is the man for this sort of thing.

Back to work - It's got that new smell

It was a bit like the first day at a new school. Now my company has moved into its new offices, I return to work at the new location. I had no idea where anything or anyone was in the office, when I walked in. I didn't even know where my desk would be.

Fortunately it turns out its in quite a good location. the office is shaped like a giant L and I'm situated at the bend so I'm in a good position to know what's going on. Of course its not so good for surfing the web and not working, as my screens can be seen quite easily.

my coworkers have mostly been in the office a week now and the large part of the problems have been sorted out. A few servers are still not on line and a couple of the rooms are not quite ready yet but I'm sure it won't be long.

However, and I should have seen this coming, there is one thing that has gone wrong and they haven't been able yet to sort out what's happened. The storage box which I packed all my stuff (and most of the rest of the energy team did too) has gone missing!

It's big, orange and has got my mug in it. So if you see it, tell me as I fancy a cup of tea!

Scars

Took off all the bits of bandages and steri strips yesterday (Thursday) and well they're a bit small.

With the way the knee feels, like I've badly twisted it, I was expecting something a little more impressive.



Oh well, should be fine to go back to work next week, after two weeks off. I must remember to take my doctors note with me.

The Operation, so how did it go?

Monday, my dad told me it would have been my Grandma Dunhill's 100th birthday

It was a lunchtime check in, they asked me what newspaper i wanted in the morning. A little odd I thought as I wasn't planning on staying that long.

A porter collected me and took me to my room (307), slightly cruelly for someone who has been told to fast, we had to walk past the dinning room.
It was a nice single room right at the quiet end of the hospital. A nurse checked me in asked me loads of questions and left me to change into a gown and a set string net knickers, nasty.

Someone popped in and asked me what food i would like later. I figured chicken soup as I was in hospital and some ham sandwiches.

At about 2pm the consultant (Mr Kitson) and the anesthetist (can't remember the name) visited. Kitson marked me on the leg with the same marker pens which we used to use to mark the frozen chickens when i was working at Salisburys. so I was happy that they would operation on the right one!



I was then left to sit waiting watching daytime TV and reading some seriously boring stuff from work about doing testing. I was starting to go a little nuts when I was finally called at about 4:30 and started my long walk to the theatre. It was slow going and the doctors were wondering where I was so much so the anesthetist came looking for us!

I was told to lie down on a trolley and they put a needle in the hand without (I think) any pain (I was expecting this to be the most painful part of the whole experience) we talked about skiing and scuba dives for a bit while they injected some stuff in my hand until I passed out.

I woke up at 6:10 from having such a lovely dream

An hour and 40 minutes, this is a very long time for the op which I had been told would be about 30 minutes. Kitson came in and explained what happened to but of course catching me a bit away with the fairies so I didn't take much in. He said he didn't do anything to the cartilage, there was no damage and in the end he just cut away the ACL stump. So ACL was causing the pain and clicking.

So, although it took me while to realise, it this was great news. No cartilage damage which means less long term problems and I should get a good knee back once a new ACL is put in.

They wheeled we back to the room.

OK, the next parts are a bit confused (I was on drugs!!)

They brought me some food.

Said that i should stay in over night as it was getting a bit late and I should see the physio who had already gone home.

I rang home a couple of times to tell them how it went.

Got a bit sick eating chicken soup. So I asked for a shot of anti nausea stuff which went in my backside and was the thing that hurt the most of the whole visit.

Keep failing asleep eating my ham sandwiches.

Watching TV with the nurse coming in to take my blood pressure and rate on a regular basis.

Kept drinking the water and refusing the painkillers.

Remembered at some point that I had brought my pyaminas so didn't need to still be wearing the frankly quite scary gown and pants combo.

Phoned home to fix up being picked up the next morning (someone must have told me about checking out by 10am at that point).

Took some pics with my mobile



Watched the Terminator and then when to sleep.

I woke up at 3:20 and 5:40 and then just before 7. That would have been my body clock thinking it was time for work. The nurse turned up shortly after to take my readings and give me some pills (painkiller). This was quickly followed by another nurse with an more pills (anti inflamatory), a lady with my breakfast (a vague memory of filling in a form about
what I wanted when I got my ham sandwiches) and a porter with my free newspaper.

So by 7:30 i was sitting up in bed with breakfast and a newspaper watching breakfast TV.
I did the sudoku and word puzzle to make sure my brain was more or less back working.

9:30ish the physio turned up and took me thru a similar set of exercises to ones I was given in Canada. The three exercises where;

with the leg flat try and push the back of the knee to touch the floor
with a towel rolled under the knee tense the thigh muscle, curl the foot up and then slowly lift the lower leg off the ground
with the leg flat and straight gently lift the heel 10cm off the ground

The result of these should be to get my leg straighter and build up the muscles a bit.
The physio also checked out how I was walking and told me off for using the walking stick in the wrong hand (it should be the opposite hand to the problem leg) and was kind enough to get a new rubber foot for the walking stick (called a ferrel) as I've worn the current one down
quite a bit.

So it was just left to the duty nurse to get me some drugs and leaflets to take home and to check me out. My dad had kindly taken some time off work to come a drive me back. he had a bit of fun trying to find my room and we hung out in the room until a porter with a wheelchair arrived to take me to the car.

The sun was shining unlike the cloudy day when I went in and all in all I think it was a very peasant way to get operated on.

Back to the House, Ivy was visiting and I think she was a bit impressed with my bandage.

bye bye office

A last chance to look at the fantastic view from the office and reflective how slightly dogeared the whole place looks. I've pack all my stuff in a crate with the number of my new desk on it.

No wait I don't have a new desk number because looking at the new seating plan the entire Energy development team is missing!

D'oh!

Sounds like an early echo of the bedlam to come next week.

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.

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)