A knee to kneel on

On Tuesday 17th October I saw Mr. Patel, the surgeon who did my Knee-One replacement in May 2012.

With the various checkups and a proposed operation on Knee-Two last year which I aborted I have had quite a few meetings with Mr. P. and he is now like an old friend. He agreed straightaway that a replacement would be available for Knee-Two, but it would mean 3 to 6 months on the waiting list.

Then on Thursday this week I had a call from the waiting list people saying Mr. P. had needed to reschedule his list and would have a number of NHS slots at the BMI private hospital in Lancaster during November, and would I be interested. Would I!

I am now awaiting a call for a date for the pre-op examination and hopefully a date for the op. in November.

Fingers crossed.

My main worry now is the possibility of being stranded on the deck when  I get down there. When I stand up from lying on the floor (or getting out of the bath et al) I use one knee to aid that manoeuvre, and except for one occasion I have never kneeled on the operated knee, even though I have been told I could if I wanted, but I am very apprehensive about that. So with two dodgy knees I will have to work out a strategy.

I have had a few scrapes in my time when serious injury or worse could have been the outcome, but my nearest death event was the one time I used Knee-One to kneel on in September last year on the ascent of Lord's Seat in the Lake District - here is an extract from my post at the time - if you want to read the whole post got to:

http://conradwalks.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Lord%27s+Seat


"Then I saw a rock band ahead blocking the way, fortunately with a rake going diagonally left, but even that had a small rock outcrop halfway up, but I had no option. I had two attempts at that rock pitch, and got into a desperate situation and came very close to coming off. After instructing myself to suppress the fear I managed by kneeling on my replacement knee which is something I do not do, but now that really was the difference between achievement and what would have been a potentially fatal fall, and it had to be done. That was  serious."