Another short break

 July 10th

We are away again, managed to grab a short break while we could, because since my last post, things have moved at a pace. My appointment with the consultant/surgeon at the private hospital on July 1st was for 9 am, which meant an early start to get there. Sat Nav said 30 minutes, but was that with the rush hour traffic? Anyway, we left nearly 50 minutes before I was due at the hospital and needless to say, Sat Nav was right, so we had a bit of a wait when we arrived.  Walking through the doors, wow, talk about a posh reception area. We were met by one of the receptionists, very pleasant and welcoming and, in our opinion, would not have been a stranger at a model agency. In fact, all the staff, including the nurses, were just as glamorous. 

Dead on 9 am, the consultant came out, shook our hands and showed us to the consulting room. Looking over the physio notes and x-ray agreed my knee was pretty bad. Out came his diary and said would August 2nd for a total knee replacement be okay. Good grief, I never expected it to be so soon. Of course, I agreed, he pencilled it in, then explained all the things that could go wrong with this type of op, including death! "Oh eck" I thought, sounds drastic, but I expect it's what's told to everyone having an anaesthetic. As we left, he took me to one side. "You must try and lose some weight before the op, and I recommend a lettuce leaf and water diet from now on"! "Crikey, that's a bit harsh", thought I. I did ask if it was alright to have a tomato with it. He thought for a moment and said, "Just the one"!

As for Ian, we are still waiting on blood test results, his weight has remained stable, and he feels very well in himself. An appointment has been made to see yet another consultant mid-August, hopefully, if I'm walking okay, I can go with him.

So that is why we decided to take a break before the 'Big Day', and so Yorkshire was the chosen destination. To date, I have lost 7lbs, that's a lb a day. The diet consists of fruit for breakfast, no lunch and a small side plate of salad with either salmon or prawns to help ease the hunger. Also, chair aerobics has become the norm, a 30-minute workout every morning. It certainly gets the heart rate up! I know the diet is drastic, but I'm determined to lose a stone before the op. The way I'm going, that does seem achievable.  Fingers crossed anyway.