Orthopaedic Contultant Is OK

If anyone ready my rather cross last post about visiting the orthopaedic consultant today, you'll have realised that he wasn't at the top of my Yule card list! This stemmed from my first visit to the back pain clinic, where he was so lacking in couch-side manner that I left the place in tears.

This visit, provoked by having to chase the hospital up because they had never bothered to let me know the results of my MRI scan, I resolved that it wouldn't be the same. I talked to Kim and he promised that he would come and bail me out of Police cells if need be and I went to the hospital today with the certainty that if the Consultant was as rude and unpleasant as he was last time, I would give him a piece of my mind and possibly follow it up with a pop on the nose, just for good measure (I have a rather splendid right hook).

Isn't it always the way that when you don't care, when your loins are girded for a fight, the thing never happens? The same consultant saw me, was polite, apologised profusely that they had let me 'fall through the net' and then spent ages showing me my MRI results, even though they were outdated. Either I had a very cross, beady look on my face, or the man had made changes - let's hope the latter.

I now have to go back for another MRI scan, which is about as appealing as drilling your own teeth with a Black & Decker - I didn't have claustrophobia until I went through the doughnut last year and I'm not eager to repeat the experience. It seems that I have a stenosis of the lower spinal column, so they may end up having to operate, but at least it left me feeling less like the sad old hypochondriac that I normally do. It's sad, but it was almost a relief to hear that there as something wrong with me. After living with chronic pain for this long, it starts to make you wonder if you're imagining things, if you're just a wimp or if you're just one of those sad buggers who is sick all the time because they don't have anything better to think of. With any luck, the next MRI should be within about five weeks, so I can get my next trip to London out of the way and then get my stupid back sorted out, one way or another.

So, I suppose I had better apologise for calling the Consultant a rude little snot in my last post - he was actually ok this time.