Well GlennW just dropped me off from our having a nice Fish’n’Chips (Eco-nuts: I had Huss) after my key X-Ray and knee consultation with Dr Rossiter this evening.

Firstly regarding the chest:

• My rib cage is improved; I managed to lie on my side for whilst some lumbar and rib x-rays were taken, and was actually reasonably comfy for several minutes.

• I will, however, never be the same again; several of the ribs are still cracked, a couple showing gaps which have not yet filled-in but which I am told will sort themselves out “eventually”.

• Further, regarding “spinal processes” – the bony “wings” or “mini-ribs” which emerge from the sides of vertebrae, if you’ve ever had a bowl of Oxtail soup – the “transverse” ones on three lumbar vertebrae have been broken right off their mountings and each now sit about one vertebra’s height above and across from where they are meant to be.

  They will never go back. I suspect they were the bits that floored me in pain when I sneezed for the first time; certainly they are in the right area for that.

  However I am also told that in the future they will cause me no problem at all because they only anchor muscles to other bits of muscles rather than the spine; I fear that lower back pain from asymmetric muscle usage is somewhere on the horizon, but otherwise the doctor’s statement is conforting if correct.

Now regarding the knee:

• It is now 8 weeks after the operation, and the doctor is satisfied that my physiotherapy can be ramped up over the next four weeks, from where I am now to “total weight-bearing” – and therefore, eventually, walking. Yay.

  However, it’s alas not as easy as that. Some background :-

• The impact knocked a wedge-shaped chunk out of the medial tibial plateau of my left knee. The relevant impact point is under the “Meniscus” as labelled in the relevant diagram, although that diagram is for a right knee, not my broken/left one.

• When it was screwed back into place, the wedge was replaced a touch too low, leaving a small “step” on what ought to be a smooth surface. It’s not a very big step, and it’s not in a very critical area, but it will cause problems in the future.

• So the choice is to “leave it” and risk having to replace the knee joint in 25 years time when I am sixty-odd, or have an operation now when I am young and relatively healthy, open my leg up seriously, break the bit off and re-set it properly.

So the situation is this:

1. The chest is an ongoing situation, I’ll get used to it.

2. I am to be booked in for yet another CT scan, within the week. (No cannulas / needed required for this one, hooray!)

3. Next monday I will have yet another consultation with Dr Rossiter, to review the results of the CT scan.

4. If it looks like the knee is in fairly good condition – that the “step” is small, and that the “meniscus” (a sort of gasket-thing) will provide enough protection of the joint from the step, then we leave it for 20 years and see how it goes.

5. If on the other hand the joint looks phucked, it’s back under the knife for me, a chisel is taken to my tibia, more screws, several more weeks off, and back to square one on the crutches.

6. Truth be told, I don’t like this latter option, especially if arthritis might require me to have the thus-repaired joint replaced at age 80, anyhow.

The underlying good news is that Dr Rossiter is leaning towards the “probably it can just be left where as it is” camp.

But we won’t know for sure until the CT scan occurs.