So It Starts

The year starts with both the wife and me nursing physical injuries.

For me, it is a gammy knee, which started back in November. For the wife, it is a bad back which we suspect may be sciatica.

The doctor at first thought my problem might be a damaged meniscus but also considered the possibility of arthritic condition. For that reason, I was booked in for an x-ray on the knee. I remember going to the X-ray department at a small nearby hospital, as an appointment there could be arranged sooner than waiting for one at our local hospital in the city. There, I was greeted by a rather young looking nurse, who led me into the imaging suite. She appeared so young looking that I did consider offering to gel her with her homework after my appointment. One thing I am forgetting to mention is that when you go for a hospital appointment, it usually pays to arrive early and then prepare for a long wait. That is what we did for this appointment and booked me in about ten minutes before the appointment time.

We needn’t have bothered though. I had barely booked in and sat down in the empty waiting area when the nurse called my name. The session saw me roll up my trouser leg and have two images taken. That was it. I thanked the young nurse, held back from making a joke about helping with her homework, and hobbled out of the hospital. I looked at my watch and noticed that it was nearly time for my appointment. I had been in and out well within ten minutes!

In the end, the X-ray showed nothing wrong; in fact, it suggested my knee was ‘normal’. I’m not sure how it could be normal when it was clearly swollen but, at least, it indicated no arthritic condition present. It has also shown that there was no water in the knee, which suggested that I probably had not damaged the meniscus after all.

At that point, I was no nearer a cure. Sure, I was relieved that there was no arthritis present and also that it seemed less likely that I had damaged the meniscus but I now had little idea what the problem was or how to treat it. So I decided to try to book a physiotherapy session. I booked the session online, I did try the telephone but that only gave me an answerphone message to say I needed to book online. Once I had booked, it was a full two weeks before the first available session.