Day 202: It's a good job I like hospitals

It's a good job I actually like hospitals because over the last couple of days I've barely spent any time anywhere else. 

Yesterday I went to see the surgeon who performed my hip replacement four years ago. As I've mentioned before I find myself playing a bit of a waiting game now. For the average person who has a ceramic hip replacement like mine it is expected to last up to 10 years before it needs replacing again. However the average person who has a ceramic hip replacement is about 70, not 20 like I was. They're not as active as someone in their 20s, they're not training to be a doctor, and they almost certainly aren't running marathons or climbing mountains. So noone can really predict how long it's going to be before it will need replacing again. I keep expecting my hip to need replacing again any day now. I guess I hope that if I expect it to happen then it won't come as such a shock when the inevitable does eventually happen and therefore it won't leave me as devastated as I was five years ago. But the truth is being told you need a hip replacement is always going to be devastating no matter how expected it is. 

So as you can probably imagine I was pretty nervous walking into that clinic yesterday. Memories of five years ago came screaming back as I walked past a man limping out of a consultation room sobbing his heart out. So I had an xray (along with standard "you're a bit young to have had a hip replacement aren't you?" reaction from the radiographer) and headed over to hear my fate. And guess what... 

I STILL HAVE TWO GOOD HIPS. 

What's more my surgeon assures me that they will stay that way for a long time yet, as long as I take good care of them that is. It's a good job I'm not running any marathons any time soon then isn't it...oh wait... Anyway I was so happy I genuinely skipped out of the clinic that day, you know, BECAUSE I CAN. 

Following a five hour coach journey up the M1 and about as many hours sleep I found myself making my way, yet again, to what has pretty much become my second home up here in Leeds:

Yep, today I spent the day on ward 8 at Chapel Allerton Hospital having another joint juice infusion, and today my poor friend Isla had the misfortune of having to keep me company for seven hours. I use the word 'misfortune' because a ward full of people, most of whom are at least twice my age, having seven hour infusions is not exactly the most exciting place in the world. And Isla kindly agrees to keep me company and what do I do? I fall asleep don't I. On the plus side though I can finally add successfully navigating a drip stand into a toilet cubicle to my extensive list of talents. All the staff on the ward are lovely, however my fave nurse is Debby and I'm pretty sure I'm secretly her fave too. She hates having her photo taken but next time I have promised her I WILL get a picture of her for my blog...even if I have to resort to chasing her round the ward whilst still attached to my drip. 

The only thing putting a downer on the last couple of days is my stomach. Not being able to eat properly has made me so depressed I wore the same outfit twice this week. For the first time ever I didn't mind being weighed in hospital today because the weight is literally just dropping off. This evening I thought I'd celebrate the last couple of days by treating myself to a McDonalds. I bought so much food that even the fatties on the table next to me were giving me judgmental looks. But could I eat it? Could I fuck. One bite of my burger and a handful of chips later I was in too much pain to battle on. First Nandos, now Maccy Ds - gastritis you are seriously taking the piss now. 

So as you can see RA has pretty much taken over my week so far, but for once I don't care because I HAVE TWO GOOD HIPS.

Love,

Cat x