The Barber Surgeon

The Barber Surgeon was one of the most common medical practitioners during the Middle Ages. Due to their dexterity with a knife they were sent to the trenches to operate on wounded soldiers.
 
I have been out of the trenches for a good few months and had my post surgical follow up appointment today at the Royal Free.
 
Luckily this was with a nurse who was also female. This meant there was a degree of empathetic bonding between us, useful when she's detailing the after effects of my cancer.
 
It was a tough meeting but we managed to have good laugh at the same time. She thought I was doing really well considering all I have been through.
 
I did leave her with one clear and serious point. She is to encourage surgeons not to sell reconstructive surgery as if it's tummy tuck and a wee skin graft. It's absolutely not.
 
Reconstructive surgery is major, invasive and fraught with many complications. NOT to be sold to a patient as if it were a something cosmetic. 
 
I knew this beforehand academically but then witnessed it in surgical intensive care via the patient in the bed next to me. I have never seen a woman in so much pain.

I wonder in retrospect whether plastic surgeons are practicing on NHS patients before launching themselves into the more lucrative private sector. Maybe I am being too cynical ;-)
 
On that cheery note I went to have lunch with Ian and Fuji.