Now we know the answer!

Went for the scan last Wednesday in Harley Street. All very salubrious. Attended by a couple of delightful young ladies in white coats. Emerged into the pouring rain and stood there for 5 minutes on crutches until a taxi arrived. And the rain stopped...

The result was phoned through to me today (Sunday). In brief, there is a recurrence of the disc problem. The last operation was to chip away some bone at the joints between the vertebrae and to remove some disc that had slipped out. There is now more disc that has extruded and it is pressing on the femoral nerve. The risks attendant on these back operations are multiplied on every recurrence. And often the disc that has slipped out will be absorbed by the body, which is why slipped discs get better without an operation in most cases. So we are waiting a month to see if this starts to happen. If it does not, or it gets worse, he will go in again. In the meantime keep taking the painkillers!

A step backwards

Well, it was all going swimmingly. Then about 3 weeks ago something moved in my back, and I am now back on 2 sticks! The GP said that there must be another impingement (i.e. something is pressing on the femoral nerve) and to see the specialist. I did that yesterday, and it is not straightforward. To see what is wrong they need an MRI scan. But you cannot do this when there is metal in the vicinity. And there is metal in the stent that they put in my aorta to deal with the aneurysm. This will, at best, distort the image, and may, because of the magnetic fields, move the stent! They are thinking about it....

But we had a great time on the Rhine last week. Sonia was brilliant, towing 2 suitcases, while I followed on 2 sticks. Then she went on all the incidental trips, and I stayed on board with a load of books and caught up with my reading. I could do that for a long time!

Now things are on the move again, there will be more frequent postings. All e-mails and letters gratefully received.