Day 0 - The Long Walk

Thus begins a series of back blips taken while I was in hospital for a knee replacement operation.

This is the corridor that leads to Ward 18 for Orthopaedic Admissions at Leicester General Hospital. We arrived at 7.30 am. The weather was far too nice to be stuck inside. The surgeon and I both agreed that we should be at the seaside.

Alice, a nurse, opened the fire doors at the end of the ward enabling me to sit enjoying the fresh morning air, the smell of new mown grass and the view over the different colours of new Spring woodland. I was chatting to a medical student when the summons came.

The anaesthetist played an acceptable medley of 'classical' music from his iPhone. I startled the surgeon and team by singing along to Vivaldi's Gloria.

I was wonderfully comfortable under the heat blanket enjoying a chat with the theatre nurse who showed me photos of her dog. The anaesthetist had given me some 'happy juice' which he described as gin and tonic. Although the operation took over two hours, the time passed quickly. Quite a lot of banging and grinding as they beat the prosthesis into shape.

Then to Ward 16 for recovery. Len came briefly in the evening. Colin looked after Basil.