Another day, another hospital

Yesterday was the orthopaedic out-patients clinic in Beaumont hospital; today it was the same thing in Blanchardstown -- yesterday it was the wrist; today it was the elbow.

My appointment was for 10:00 am, but that still meant I had to set the alarm for 8:00 to fit in brekky and get a taxi to Beaumont to catch the cross-city bus from one hospital to the other. The OPD procedure is very different in Blanchardstown, but it works. Unfortunately, it was a very busy morning, so what with waiting for an X-ray and then waiting to be seen by a doctor it was 12:30 by the time I left.

The junior doctor asked me to wait while she talked to the big boss, and came back with him in tow. He told me the elbow injury was "serious", that it would mend, but that I might never get full mobility back in the arm (I can't straighten it as things stand now). I'm to keep the arm in the sling for another three weeks, then to begin physiotherapy, and then to return to the orthopaedic clinic five weeks from now.

I checked in with physiotherapy afterwards. When the guy saw my address he suggested that I could just as well do physiotherapy in Beaumont and that he'd see about referring me to them (he phoned later to say this had been cleared).

The rest of the day was lazy. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

p.s. Mobile reception is non-existent in the hospital, so I missed a call from yet another hospital: the Mater this time. When I phoned back it was to be told that the camera-scope procedure which I was referred for in July last year (!) will go ahead "very shortly". This is to determine whether or not I'll need a valve replacement. When we spoke later dates mentioned were either 19th or 26th September. At last!