Early start today. We had to be in Sunderland for 10am to see Karen’s Orthopedic Surgeons (orthopods) for a checkup. Whilst we were waiting, Angela (Karen’s workmate who was in the front passenger seat in the car crash) and her husband (Neil) turned up to see the consultant as well. She had similar injuries to Karen. It was good to see her and nicely passed the time while we waited.

We pretty much went from waiting room to waiting room with them which was nice.

First stop was to get some x-rays so they could see if any of the pins, plates had moved. They took 3 pictures.

Here is the best one (if you can have best x-rays).

Hasn’t she got a lovely smile ?

The Orthopedic Surgeons were great and very thorough when they saw Karen. They talked gobbledy gook to each other and kept nodding to each other and wow’ing themselves with their handiwork and Karen’s progress. They were like car mechanics looking at a vintage Austin Healey and it’s amazing condition. As long as they didn’t try and polish the headlamps, I was happy.

In full flow of their medical technospeak, they turned to Karen and I and said (and I am paraphrasing because we hadn’t a clue what they were saying….)………

OrthoPod 1 (flicking a look to Karen after talking to Orthopod 2) :- And how is your distulating veribule ? That’s no longer an issue ?

Of course, you want to say “yes”, but both of us looked at each other to see if the other had understood what he was on about…….

When we looked confused, he made no effort to translate, so we felt a bit stupid…..

dp :- Sorry, how is what ????

Basically, he was asking how Karen’s pinsite was that had got infected. I explained she had 2 further ops to clean it out and it was now fine.

Phew !

In summary, neither Karen or I were ready for any big bad news today, and it wasn’t until we got to the hospital that it dawned on us that there MAY be some unexpected news of the day. But, we needn’t have worried………….All is fine. Karen needs a further op to close up the stomach muscles, and one of the orthopedic surgeons will come along for that operation, and while they have her wide open, will remove the main plate holding the pelvis together (the bottom one on the diagram). Apparently, the pins coming from that plate can cause problems in the future, and it would be better to whip it out whilst she was open rather than go in yet again in the future.

We stopped off to get two of the car’s tyres changed on the way back and had a nice bacon buttie back at home. Snooze followed buttie…….

And that’s it for the day……….Busy day tomorrow……..

9.30am Eye Hospital
1pm Physio

and after physio, we have to go to 2 different places in Gateshead and then back to Sunderland to get the remaining 2 car tyres changed.