The last entry was back in March. What's happened since then?
Nothing much really. Normality, fortunately, has been the in the majority.
In early June I had the final post urethroplasty check-up in Strathfield.
We drove down on the day before so that the Friday admission is less fraught. We usually stay in the Haymarket so the train trip to Strathfield is quite pleasant and it all makes for a more comfortable morning even if I'm fasting and so miss out on a good breakfast from Gungho in Quay Street.
Dr. Harry Lam was the exceptionally cheerful anaesthetist. So skilfully did he deliver the Michael Jackson Moon juice that I never even felt the initial effect: one second I'm happily waffling to urological surgeon James Wong and the next thing I know is that I'm gently floating up from the depths in Recovery.
The good news is that James is pleased with the graft and I should not need to see him again. A smidgen of regret flickers as with most of the medical people who have looked after me over the last few years I develop an emotional attachment to each. So the regret at the prospect of not seeing James Wong again is real even if it is well outweighed by the knowledge that things are fine, another hurdle has been crossed successfully and something else deleted from the To Do List.
The shoulder & neck problems are still slowly settling down. There's now little pain even when driving and the paraesthesia is gradually tailing off. I still do my exercises with the mega-sized rubber band - a 15cm wide scarf of lime green latex called a Thera-band. The resistance-based exercises are designed to improve the muscles around the shoulder-blades helping with posture. Seems to have worked in reducing the problems although I'm still stooped with a bent back a condition known as kyphosis. This condition came on over many months and somewhat surreptitiously. It may require surgery at some time in the future if it becomes worse. I'm now shorter than I was six years ago :(
Old age is a bugger
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