Well, it's now only seven days to go until I go into Hospital for my first total knee replacement - my left knee. Must admit, despite my professional nursing background I am still a bit apprehensive about it all.
I know I've got a good surgeon who is a knee expert and my anaethetist is first rate - used him before and he knows my sordid medical history well - but the whole prospect is somewhat over-whelming (or is that 'overwhelming' LOL?).
I remain positive and I have a resolve to get stuck into my recovery program and get up and walking unassisted ASAP. To that end my GP and his clinic nurse have secured the assistance of a local sports physiotherapist who will give me his time for five rehab sessions after I come home (It's too far back to Canberra to visit the Orthopaedic specialist's own physio.) I want to be back on our trips around the countryside - I spied a few old derelict farmhouses across the fields the other day that will make for some great 'charater images' of early Australian settlement in this region.
Unfortunately I am going to miss one local show and a field day as well as a country muster and I was so loking forward to attending those.
My right knee is also starting to 'cave-in' under the added burden of compensating for the left knee and my surgeon says that it will not be long before it needs doing as well - just what I need - more pain and more medical bills.
Just hope I am OK by the end of August as we are booked to fly to Hobart (almost like going overseas LOL) for a conference - The 36th Annual International Conference of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses with the theme "Row with the team or paddle alone" . This time I'm going as an observer but my dear wife will be attending as a full participant. I have been asked to consider presenting a short paper in 2011 to introduce a session and to base that paper on my 42 years of nursing experience and the changes I have seen and experienced during that evolving period for Australian mental Health Nursing. I'll give it some thought!
I created this blog to talk about my home region. I've used many images, including archival images but mostly I've used my own images.
1 comment:
John, I was a mental health nurse before spending my career in spinal injuries!
just catching up with my blog.... can u post some of your house photos?
Post a Comment