4 weeks to go - reflection

Of all the random things to do on a sunday morning, I decided to watch an entire BHR surgery online on the McMinn Centre website (http://www.mcminncentre.co.uk/flash/). Derek McMinn is the founder of the BHR and I feel so lucky to be having mine in Birmingham where it all started. As far as I know, he only works at the ROHB part-time to do knee surgeries now and all his hip patients are private.

I should say that the surgery video is graphic and watch it being warned thus! It's fascinating though and despite it being a specially recorded surgery, it still only took him 50mins to complete the entire thing. If I hadn't already been through a triple pelvic osteotomy (TPO or PAO) I probably couldn't have watched it. I remember my orthopod telling me how they checked how secure the pins were in my pelvis - which basically involved him bouncing me (!) on the table by shaking one of the pins on a metal rod.....yum! It almost seems too comical to believe, if it weren't for the bruises.

So aside from becoming slightly obsessed with researching 'all things hip' (or 'hip porn' as one of my friends referred to it!) I've begun to start thinking about getting organised. I have 4 weeks to go. Next friday, 29th Jan, the ROHB has arranged for me to have my pre-op assessment at my local GP surgery. That's really nice of them as it saves me a 4hr round trip for something that will only take 30mins. It also means I can pop down on my lunch break and not have to worry about being off from work.

I'm slowly accumulating a shopping list of essentials. This is in part due to the fact that I'll be recovering at the family home in Scotland and not in Leeds. So I need to organise myself not only for the hospital stay, but a few weeks away. I'm going to think on that more in a couple of weeks time. Next weekend I think I'm going to have a mini-spring clean of my apartment and sort out a lot of stuff. My thinking on that one is this - my job is ending at the end of may, and at this moment in time I have no job to go to after that, therefore I might be moving. If I have to move, it makes sense to have the apartment in order when I'm less mobile or if I need some kind soul to help me.

So really I'm just in psychological organisation mode this weekend. I'm not nervous about the surgery (yet!), but I did have a moment yesterday where all I could think about was infections post-op. And I'm not talking about from the surgery, I mean getting a throat infection or from a small cut etc. Apparently you have to be super careful about such things with a metal prosthesis as bugs like to grow where blood (and thus antibiotics) can't get to them and they can cause havoc. I had visions of antibiotic spacers and then THR's. But enough, its all about choices and what I can live with. I cannot live with the joint the way it is, so BHR is the way to go and I will just have to make sure I look after myself.

I think I'm going to go draw myself a nice hot bath and remove myself from the internet 'hip porn'!