Visit to see Kermit

Monday 16th November 2009

I had an appointment to see Kermit that morning at the hospital. It would be the first time I had seen him since I was discharged from hospital.

As John couldn’t find a car park space (no surprises there…) he dropped me off then went home to wait for a phone call from me saying I was ready to be collected.

While I was waiting in the long queue at the reception desk, a man behind me started to rest his arms on the handles of my wheelchair. Then every time the queue started to move he insisted on pushing me. No amount of ‘I’m fine thanks’, would stop him from doing it. I was not amused…

When my name was called a nurse took me to one side and quietly asked, “is your wound dry”.
“Yes”, I replied.
“Good”, she said, “please go to waiting area two”.

“Hello”, said Kermit, “you are looking much better. I’m really pleased about that”.
“That’s what proper food does to you”, I replied.
He asked how I had been managing at home.
“Fine thanks”, I said, “I’m even walking a little using crutches”.

He had a look and a prod at my wound, “I’m pleased with that”, he said, “the area is soft and not hard, so there isn’t a build up of fluid”.
“So”, he said, sitting back down on the examination table, “lets talk about the future, shall we.
There are two options. Do nothing or put a new hip in. Doing nothing is the easy option, though it would mean that you remain as you are now, in a wheelchair, and on crutches. You’ve gone through a considerable amount recently. Do you want to put yourself through yet more trips to the woodshed”.
I smiled, “Ok. I can see where you’re coming from. Option two”.
“Option two”, he continued, “would mean two lots of major surgery. At least five hours for me to put in a new hip and at least five hours for plastics to do a muscle transplant and a skin graft”.

I knew that there were problems and risks in putting in subsequent hip replacements so asked Kermit for his advice.
“There will be about a 60% chance of successfully putting in a new hip. However it’ll be a tough 100% challenge for me”.
“Don’t get me wrong”, he stressed, “I love doing complex operations. The harder, the better. There is no rush in making your decision. I want you to have a good think about both options and we’ll see you in a months time”.

Sadly I wasn’t finished with the hospital yet as I needed to have a blood test to check the infection levels. While I waited nearly two hours to have the blood test done, I had a chat with a couple of people I knew from my stay in hospital – Dr Richard, Marilyn, an auxiliary nurse from Ward 43 and Michael, the patient from ward 44 who had had his leg amputated.

After I eventually had my blood test, John collected me and we went to the Metro Centre.