Orthopaedics
May. 21st, 2004 11:08 amSo, it's only eleven o'clock in the morning and things are already happening. How amazing is the life of me, etc.
Last week Pedar decided that was it, he was taking me into orthopaedics. Now, he has a friend who is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon (as you do) and accordingly, I went to the district general hospital with him this morning. Mr Nadkarni wasn't very touchy-feely as a person, but he prodded my foot from all angles and made interested noises every time I jumped. Eventually, he referred me to X-ray.
Accordingly, off I went. The hospital is very familiar to me, but they've never X-rayed me before. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I always find X-rays a faintly disturbing concept. You go in the room and allow them to pass dangerous short-wave radiation through your injured body parts while the only other person in the room is wearing a lead apron. Pedar, who had disappeared from his clinic to help me out, found all of this very amusing. He has made less than polite comments about orthopaedics in general before now. Moving on, there were no major incidents. They had me balancing on block-type things and trying to balance the plate between my feet. It was all very weird.
When they'd finished, I took the plates back down to orthopaedics. Pedar had arrived from somewhere in the meantime, and I settled down to hear the verdict. The first thing he said - no surgery. This scared me, as I never even considered that possibility, but it ain't going to happen. That's good. In the less good news, this is not something that's going to go away. It's just a symptom of what is going to be a life-long condition. I have fallen arches and fibrous bars of tissue between the bones, which I did know; they're difficult to treat, and may in fact be the explanation for a lot of my more weird habits. Contrary to popular belief, I do not enjoy falling over all the time. It's not something I can help - my ankles make my feet roll inwards and I lose my balance.
Bottom line is, the condition is not very serious but it's not really treatable. Apparently they're putting me into physiotherapy fairly soon.
Today ought to be now given over to revision. How do you revise for English? I have no idea.
Last week Pedar decided that was it, he was taking me into orthopaedics. Now, he has a friend who is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon (as you do) and accordingly, I went to the district general hospital with him this morning. Mr Nadkarni wasn't very touchy-feely as a person, but he prodded my foot from all angles and made interested noises every time I jumped. Eventually, he referred me to X-ray.
Accordingly, off I went. The hospital is very familiar to me, but they've never X-rayed me before. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I always find X-rays a faintly disturbing concept. You go in the room and allow them to pass dangerous short-wave radiation through your injured body parts while the only other person in the room is wearing a lead apron. Pedar, who had disappeared from his clinic to help me out, found all of this very amusing. He has made less than polite comments about orthopaedics in general before now. Moving on, there were no major incidents. They had me balancing on block-type things and trying to balance the plate between my feet. It was all very weird.
When they'd finished, I took the plates back down to orthopaedics. Pedar had arrived from somewhere in the meantime, and I settled down to hear the verdict. The first thing he said - no surgery. This scared me, as I never even considered that possibility, but it ain't going to happen. That's good. In the less good news, this is not something that's going to go away. It's just a symptom of what is going to be a life-long condition. I have fallen arches and fibrous bars of tissue between the bones, which I did know; they're difficult to treat, and may in fact be the explanation for a lot of my more weird habits. Contrary to popular belief, I do not enjoy falling over all the time. It's not something I can help - my ankles make my feet roll inwards and I lose my balance.
Bottom line is, the condition is not very serious but it's not really treatable. Apparently they're putting me into physiotherapy fairly soon.
Today ought to be now given over to revision. How do you revise for English? I have no idea.