First off I had to accompany two older nursing assistants who carry out a number of tests, blood pressure, bloods, MRSA and heart monitoring. Had the fun experience of once more having to sway behind my testicles to check for MRSA infection. After this fun experience I returned to the waiting room. While I was there a nurse arrived to check out what equipment I would need at home post operative, basically this involves arranging for the delivery of a loo seat, washing frame and chair raisers. After this I was taken by another nurse for a run through of what I would need to do before coming to hospital and on arrival. This was accompanied by reams of paperwork and consent forms. I was also asked whether |I wished to join the bone bank and after a lengthy and for some embarrassing series of questions was accepted into this.
Once again back to the waiting room, only the Doctor and then the Consultant to go. While I was waiting I flicked through a selection of the “woman's” magazines on offer. Oh my God, why do women read these things? They were either celebrity tat or full of stories about peoples loved ones dying in the most appalling circumstances. I've not got a lot of time for lads mags but at least they're more uplifting, if only in a mammary sense.
Finally it's time to see the Doctor and surgeon (Mr Davidson) for a last check on the state of my hip and to run through what's going to happen on the day. Unfortunately, for me, the doctor has student medics with him and I'm the guinea pig for them to practice on. The youngest of the students is very nervous and the doctor grinning whilst he attempts an examination of me is very of putting for him. As a result my leg gets treated a little more roughly than would be the norm and over the next few days I pay for this painfully. However if everyone objects to letting students practice on them then they'll never learn so a little extra pain is a small price to pay for contributing to the education of our future health professionals. I'M SO NOBLE!! In fact so noble am I that when I was asked if I would consider being a member of the hospital bone bank* I immediately agreed. Sometime when I look in the mirror I have an overwhelming urge to tug my forelock as a mark of respect and deference toward myself. God it's hard being perfect! Anyway, finally it was all over and so I phoned Deb and met her and Han and Donna at the main entrance and off we went home.
*A Bone Bank harvests femoral heads from patients undergoing total hip replacements. Approximately 200-300 are harvested per annum and these are used for patients requiring revision surgery, particularly revision hip, knee and shoulder replacements and also for scoliosis correction in children.Femoral heads are fresh frozen for a minimum of 180 days (a requirement by law) at -80˚C. Each stage of the donation process from consent, medical assessment of donors, serology testing, storage and clinical use of bone is governed by a robust quality system to ensure safety and confidentiality of both donor and recipient.
Re: Heart Attack, I haven't had a heart attack but I do, it seems, have a slight heart murmur which apparently is quite common and not a cause for great concern. Also when the original nurses took my blood pressure it was prety good, 118 /75 which is certainly preferable to what it was before it started taking medication to lower it 140/90.
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