21st September 2003

After a bit of confusion as to how specialised a specialist I should see I finally got to see a Mr. El-Zebdeh who was pioneering a new method of treating the problems I was having. The technical name is a PCL Avulsion, which means the Posterior Cruciate Ligament had detached itself due to the impact on my knee and had pulled off the lump off bone it was attached to in the process. There was no way of getting out of having an operation so it was back to the London Independent Hospital for another few days.

I came round from the operation having had a long screw put in to the back of my knee as expected but was rather surprised to find a support hanging from the ceiling that was attached to a long steel bar that appeared to be going through my leg. Turned out that it wasn't a magic trick and that this bar was part of the new method of treating the problem. The case was due to be on for quite a while so I had to get used to getting around on crutches for a while. As usual with me nothing is ever easy and the crutches started to irritate an old scaphoid injury I picked up a couple of years ago.

I'd been traveling to see Brian 'Bone Welder' Simpson in Ipswich to help speed up the healing process. As I couldn't drive my van I had to resort to hiring a car with an automatic gearbox in order to get there. I had a cunning plan that if I booked an appointment for the Friday before one of the Brands Hatch MiniTwins rounds I could get to the circuit and watch some racing as well. I spent a nice day at the circuit catching up with people and watching some racing only to get a phone call the following day to say that Becki 'Red' Cartwright had fallen off and had broken both her wrists. Blimey, and I thought I was the unlucky one! Well, to be honest, I was - I did exactly the same back in April 2002 but as I lived on my own they didn't plaster up the wrist with the fractured scaphoid and gave me lots of extra pain killers.

I found Red in the Accident and Emergency Department of a nice, new hospital near to the Bluewater Shopping Centre. The Doctor was being a bit heavy handed whilst examining the damage and I eventually had enough of his poor bedside manner and lack on consideration and took charge. Bossy? Me? Yeah, okay it's true. The guy was being so inconsiderate and insisted on pulling Red's arms around causing her a great deal of pain. having been through it myself I knew exactly how much it hurt and eventually took over and showed him how to be so clumsy.

Obviously with me hobbling around on one leg and red with both arms in casts we did get some strange looks around the hospital. My leg was improving and after a short overnight stay Red was allowed to go home.