Early Risers.

[Ohmisterporter]

Torbay expect to replace Sherry's hip this year. What is sad is that in 2005 she had the other hip resurfaced, and has had no trouble with it in all those years. Resurfacing is no longer practised by the NHS after a number of such ops were less successful.

 

My uncle had both hips replaced twice due to the local NHS hospital using the cheapest available artificial hip joints. They made the national press as the worst offenders in that regard. I'm not sure what the cost difference was between the cheap ones and better quality joints but surely the cost of performing the operation twice more that covered any savings through buying cheap. Meanwhile my uncle and others had prolonged hip pain and impaired mobility which you cannot put a price on. Hope everyone who is ailing is on the mend. Stay safe all.

[lightengine]

Yep, they might have had to lmport them from Canada - if it is allowed by the EU.....

Best, Pete

Only if we arrange a tea party.

[Judge Dread]

I'm told that cos I'm young for the OP, recovery should be pretty quick - just don't know what to expect in the early days.

I suppose it depends on what you would call "young"? My wife had her first hip done 18 years ago and was told it would last 10 years. She had it done by local anesthetic but when the surgeon noticed she was being moved about quite a lot, he offered the chance to have a little sleep. The second hip was done about 5 years later and now she is waiting to go in again to have the first one redone. That's 3 hips, I never knew she was from the Isle of Mann.

"Young" people get their ball joint screwed in, where as older ones have them glued in. The operation is not readily offered to the very young because of the need to redo. My wife has been lucky to make the first one last almost twice the predicted time scale. I am typing this under supervision as I'm an electrician by trade (retired) not a nurse! 

I do remember she had to use a stick when first discharged and again in the last six months but inbetween, only when she got very tired.

I hope things turn out OK for you.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Judge Dread

[ikks]

I'm told that cos I'm young for the OP, recovery should be pretty quick - just don't know what to expect in the early days.

My wife had a hip replacement in August last year(she is 54),prior to the operation she was in a lot of pain and had limited mobility. I took her into the hospital for the op early on the Thursday morning and when I went to pick her up on the Sunday morning she was standing by her bed! I was gobsmacked. She endured some discomfort for the following week, mainly tiredness  and some pain but had been given medication to counter this. After that week I was driving her to and from work and in a couple of weeks she was almost back to normal, the only issue was that she was not allowed to drive for six weeks after the op(although she did!). She has absolutely no regrets about it and now wishes she had had the op ages ago when she first experienced the issues. I have witnessed first hand the exceptional transformation in her........hope this helps to set your mind at ease.

 

Rgds........Mike

[Brian D]

Well folks, 80 pages have passed since I last looked in so I'm afraid I feel a bit if a fraud for asking for some help and advice

 

But if you don't mind I'm a bit apprehensive about something I'll shortly have to deal with. I'll try to keep it short by saying simply that before Christmas I didn't really know I'd got a real problem, but in the intervening weeks I've had x-rays, clinic consultation and been told I have to have a full hip replacement.

 

And I was expecting perhaps physio with maybe steroid jab at the worst!

 

Must be bad as it's getting worse week on week.

 

Anyone out there who can tell me what I'm in for?

 

Thanks.

 

See my PM.

 

Regards,

Brian

[edcayton]

Have been home from a fairly calm shift for a while now. Driving on Sundays is not too bad, as a matter of fact, with fewer people and traffic being around.

 

Dinner will be a bit early today as I'll be on early shifts for the next two days, meaning I'll need to get up in the middle of the night. Followed by two days off, though!

 

 

 

The town of Schkeuditz was sleepy still when I first arrived there on 1233 "Augsburg." For reasons I do not know yet, re-labeling our trams with the new logos seems to be indefinitely delayed. Or perhaps there might be truth to certain claims that an all-new livery is being prepared…

 

 

 

On Sundays when we are running on a 15-minute interval during the day, turns on Line 11 are planned such that while Markkleeberg Ost is served every 15 minutes, services alternate between Schkeuditz and Wahren on the other end, so that every second turn turns back at Wahren and Schkeuditz is served every 30 minutes. Here, 1209 "Frankfurt am Main", one of those early NGT12s recently outfitted with coloured LED frontal destination signs is stood on Father Aurelius Square.

 

 

 

It's interesting to note that several of the NGT12 fleet such as it existed at the time of the 2006 football world championship had been named for those cities which had been match venues. After the championship, these labels were soon modified to read, "City with Trams". By coincidence, Frankfurt also is one of those cities with which Leipzig has a twinning agreement.

 

 

 

And in Markkleeberg, 1209 was also treated to a few rays of sunlight.

 

 

As I also passed Dölitz several times, I took this snapshot from outside the construction site while stood at the outbound stop…

 

 

Work at the depot has been progressing well and we expect that it can be reopened on schedule this summer. The façade of the old car shed has been preserved and erected as a portico for the outbound tracks.

 

 

 

 

An extended stretch of Georg-Schumann-Straße up in Möckern will be extensively renewed during the next eight months. During this period, tram operation will be single-tracked, first on the inbound track from 21 March till 24 June, and then on the outbound track from 27 June till 30 September. To this end, temporary points will be installed on the weekend of 19 and 20 March.

 

 

 

 

I do not have any information as to how work is progressing at the water mains repair site which is the reason for the present diversion of Lines 10 and 11 through Arthur-Hoffmann-Straße and Richard-Lehmann-Straße, but it is expected to be completed next weekend. Here, I was stood ahead of Roßplatz where I needed to wait for Line 16 to clear the inbound platform.

 

In this type of situation, it is, in general, good practice to wait ahead of the point which would be able to function as the last chance to divert, should that become necessary due to unexpected incidents on the route. There are, however, a couple of locations where, by contrast, it's customary to proceed onto a point, though in the event of a diversion becoming necessary, this would entail having to back up to be able to reset it as required.

 

 

Dinner is in preparation as I type, so if I shouldn't be able to chime in again tonight, enjoy your evening!

 

Dom, how is a helicopter supposed to land in the penultimate photo?

 

Ed

[emt_911]

Most of my tasks have been completed today, I now have a hill of paperwork rather than the mountain earlier.

 

n earlier ER tomorrow, so, night all

[leopardml2341]

My wife had a hip replacement in August last year(she is 54),prior to the operation she was in a lot of pain and had limited mobility. I took her into the hospital for the op early on the Thursday morning and when I went to pick her up on the Sunday morning she was standing by her bed! I was gobsmacked. She endured some discomfort for the following week, mainly tiredness  and some pain but had been given medication to counter this. After that week I was driving her to and from work and in a couple of weeks she was almost back to normal, the only issue was that she was not allowed to drive for six weeks after the op(although she did!). She has absolutely no regrets about it and now wishes she had had the op ages ago when she first experienced the issues. I have witnessed first hand the exceptional transformation in her........hope this helps to set your mind at ease.

 

Rgds........Mike

Thanks Mike,

 

That is encouraging

 

I'm slightly younger 53 (nearly) so I hope similar pathway to recovery.

 

How is SWMBO now?

 

Thanks,

[Barry O]

steady evening umpiring. time for bed!

 

sleep well everyone!

 

Rick- hope you have a nice Monday!

 

Baz

[jamie92208]

Great day, meal went well and all seemed to like the food, good company then after the hordes had departed a nice relaxing evening watching tele followed by an hours soldering on OHLE, off to update the layout thread first then bed time.

 

Jamie

[andyram]

Evening all. Sorry to hear of the news from my near neighbour, Andy (leopard). I wish you well for the operation.

 

As expected I did miss the Mansfield show in order to look after Amber. Her cold has taken hold over the course of the day and she slept through much of the visit to the inlaws this afternoon and is now asleep in our bed.

I managed to visit my mum this evening. My brother is still in residence and it is clear he is starting to get angry about the end of the marriage. All we can do is offer support.

[BSW01]

Evening everyone. Plenty of sunshine today. We've also had lots of visitors for Sheila, so no chance of partaking in any recreational pursuits in the workshop. This weekend like many others, was one where the car has not moved since Friday evening, I quite like this staying at home malarkey!

 

When I worked in the steel industry we had two standard gauge 0-4-0 diesel shunters in the works. One failed to restart whilst working in a department on the other side of the works, and as it was started "electrically" I was given the task of finding out why it wouldn't start. I was also told that if I could get it started I was to bring back round to the maintenance department. Once I sorted out the problem (a broken connection in the starter circuit) I drove it back to the workshop, I was like a kid in a sweet shop. It's the only time I driven a standard gauge engine.

 

I think I'm lucky in that I've never had to have a catheter fitted, although you lose all sense of dignity when going through radiotherapy and you're given a small paper towel for cover up your bits!

 

Mick. Thanks for the info, I'll try and drop into the Blackburn show and say hello.

 

Off to bed now as I've a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

 

Goodnight all.

[ikks]

Thanks Mike,

 

That is encouraging

 

I'm slightly younger 53 (nearly) so I hope similar pathway to recovery.

 

How is SWMBO now?

 

Thanks,

Really good, she has always been a bit of an exercise freak, the only thing she won't do now is running and that is because of the jarring on the hip, she does however swim a kilometer a day six days a week and rides her bike whenever she can, not things that were possible prior to the op. So she's really enjoying a new lease of life.

 

Rgds.....Mike

[The Stationmaster]

I didn't realise until reading the BBC website today that Britain was nearly brought to it's knees with the recent flooding in Cumbria.

The flood waters submerged Carlisle's McVitie's factory ovens, halting production of custard creams, bourbons, ginger nuts and table water biscuits. Apparently production of ginger nuts has now started again and our supermarket shelves should soon be full once again.

Crumbs we were close to disaster there!

 

Worry not - not only has some production restarted (I even found some water biscuits back on the shelves in Tesco this week) but Tesco, nationally, have received 4 pallet loads of ginger nuts airfreighted in from a factory in South Africa this week.

 

Anyway we had a pleasant pub meal this evening and the offspring duly coughed up for it although laddo can hardly moan about the cost as his place of employment is about to be reorganised and he will be taking on a few more client accounts (=more work) plus hopefully getting an assistant and getting a pay rise out of it so he's been fairly happy notwithstanding Norwich's defeat at Swansea yesterday.  

 

And on that note I'll bid you all g'night.

Edited March 6, 2016 by The Stationmaster

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Two_sugars]

Goodnight everyone . . . . .Sleep well.

 

 

 

John

[Ashcombe]

Well folks, 80 pages have passed since I last looked in so I'm afraid I feel a bit if a fraud for asking for some help and advice

But if you don't mind I'm a bit apprehensive about something I'll shortly have to deal with. I'll try to keep it short by saying simply that before Christmas I didn't really know I'd got a real problem, but in the intervening weeks I've had x-rays, clinic consultation and been told I have to have a full hip replacement.

And I was expecting perhaps physio with maybe steroid jab at the worst!

Must be bad as it's getting worse week on week.

Anyone out there who can tell me what I'm in for?

Thanks.

For my hip resurfacing, I had a GA with an epidural and a few hours in post op care where I was fascinated by the monitor which displayed the scores on all my vital signs! Next day, I used a Zimmer frame and was on crutches and doing physio soon afterwards. Once I could manage stairs, I was allowed home. (three days post op) Within a couple of weeks I progressed to two sticks then one and returned to work after two months. During convalescence, an hour's rest daily after lunch was recommended and walking too, gradually increasing the distance covered.

 

You should be invited to an information session (Torbay Hospital calls it Joint School!) prior to surgery where you'll be told what to expect and advised about the initial limitations of your hip. This is well worth attending as it provides reassurance and the chance to buy aids to use in recovery. Your home will be assessed by an occupational therapist who will organise equipment to help, including a raised loo seat, etc. After surgery, you should be visited by a district nurse and physiotherapist to check your progress.

 

Try not to worry as it's a common procedure with positive results in terms of increased mobility and cessation of pain. PM me if you'd like more advice. Good luck!

[emt_911]

Morning all. A slight frost this morning but at least I should be out of the starting gate before most of the cockwombles.

 

The amount of helpful information and support by ER's constantly restores my faith in humanity.

 

Have a good day everyone

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

I went to the cinema yesterday.  "London Has Fallen" features Morgan Freeman as the US Vice-President and lots of people whose names would mean nothing even if I could remember them.  I cannot remember the name of the flick to which it is said to be a sequel and have not seen it.  It relies heavily on special effects, such as the partial demolition of Westminster Abbey by a bomb, but the plot is not totally improbable, covering as it does the murder of several world leaders at the funeral of another and the infiltration of the police and armed forces by Yemeni terrorists. 

 

Right, that's enough thought provoking for a Monday morning.  What does the coming week hold?  Quiz and concert on Tuesday, AGM and visit to Poorly Pal on Wednesday, EMGS/S4Soc Skills Day on Saturday and Nottingham show on Sunday.  Add to that the twice weekly fodder run and other life support activity and it's all go.

 

Best wishes to the ailing

 

Chris

[iL Dottore]

Morning All

Well folks, 80 pages have passed since I last looked in so I'm afraid I feel a bit if a fraud for asking for some help and advice

But if you don't mind I'm a bit apprehensive about something I'll shortly have to deal with. I'll try to keep it short by saying simply that before Christmas I didn't really know I'd got a real problem, but in the intervening weeks I've had x-rays, clinic consultation and been told I have to have a full hip replacement.

And I was expecting perhaps physio with maybe steroid jab at the worst!

Must be bad as it's getting worse week on week.

Anyone out there who can tell me what I'm in for?

Thanks.

There's very little I can add (regarding a patient's perspective), however a few comments if I may:

• The hip joint, compared with the knee, is a relatively simple joint and there are a number of different approaches from simple resurfacing of the femoral head and/or the acetabulum to a complete replacement of the femoral head.
• The area has an extremely rich blood supply and it is likely you will need at least one unit of blood during the op. I don't know whether or not the local NHS practices this, but the last few orthopaedic ops I had (knees), the surgical team used autologous blood (i.e. blood that I had donated to myself in advance of the surgery). This process has, as you can imagine, advantages over receiving other people's blood (however, I am not sure what the upper limit is for autologous donations for a specific op, I only donated one unit to myself)
• Anaesthesia: much will depend upon your overall state of health, but I have noticed a trend away from general anaesthesia towards minimal anaesthesa - such as nerve blocks and epidural anaesthesia. With the latter. although not awake, you are generally "zoned out" courtesy of a friendly benzodiazepine (or similar). i.e. you know what's going on but you don't care...
• There are a number of different types of hip protheses, but these can be broken down into two major types "cemented" and "uncemented" types. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types. Your orthopod (orthopaedic surgeon) should be able to discuss with you what is the best.
• There are also a number of different surgical approaches for installing a hip prothesis, again something to discuss with the surgeon.
• Assuming no complications, you will be ambulated the day of surgery (when I had my right patella resurfaced, my roommate had a hip replacement and was ambulated on the day of surgery [albeit just for a few steps])
• Pain control: initially with narcotics, but then tapering off to a NSAID - such as ibuprofen - at various doses.
• You will be required to wear antithrombotic stockings for a while post op and you may be given an anticoagulant - depending on your surgeon's/hospital;s  methodology/preferences. For those who hate the ugly, white, antithrombotic stockings (a.k.a. compression stocking) and are prepared to pay a few bob, you can get them made to measure and to order (I have a pair, which I wear on long haul flights, which are black, without sole or toe holes and are handed [as my legs are slightly different sizes])

Good Luck

 

Off to walk the Wolfpack, I'll be back soon.

 

Tatty Bye

 

iD

[skipepsi]

Morning all, an early riser today as Mrs B is going in to hospital for one of her shoulders fixing. It is a day case but involves a GA. She has to be there for 7.30 am but like Ian OD her op might not be until this afternoon. Other news it is getting light quickly and it is cold and dry, the car will need defrosting. Have a good day all.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We have a fairly chilly and rather grey morning.  The trip down to Munich went well - Frankfurt to Munich now only takes three hours due to the high speed link between Nürnberg and München.  Sunday was spent doing not a lot!

 

Time for a coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

A frosty start today and plenty of ice scraping going on from those poor souls off to work. The Boss is off today so I can sit here in the warm drinking tea  and gloating. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and all is well in my little corner of the universe. The only slight blip is that I have to accompany Chris to the dentist for a check up. As usual she will be full of trepidation and again as usual I bet that she won't need anything done.

After that gardening has been mentioned but I've declined her kind offer for me to assist as I have other things to do. ( don't know what they are yet but I'm sure I'll think of something)

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited March 7, 2016 by grandadbob

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

I'm still in clink. Now that isn't hell, in all fairness, as I've had no room companion since Saturday morning, and I am fed and watered. But it is tedious, and recent scans are not likely to convince the surgeon that I should be allowed out into society. I just have no idea what else he can do! Hope to see him this morning at some stage.

 

It looks like a nice day here.

 

Hope your week goes well. More anon.

[roundhouse]

Morning - the sun is out again.

As it was sunny yesterday morning I had the garage door open and worked on the fiddleyard for Dobris although it did cloud up around lunchtime and we had a bit of hail, snow, rain on and off. Managed to continue working under the garage door.

 

Then it was off to Heathrow to drop Mum at terminal 3. Back home before Eight so just a tiny bit more work the layout before bed.

 

A normal Monday morning with the bus getting later and later, so we walked which at least is some exercise. Over running engineering works plus the Thameslink heavily delayed but with the information displays insisting it isn't and stating that the 07.03 to Vic is over 20 late. There isn't a 07.03 and the 07.04 to Vic had already departed. So a lot of confused Thameslink passengers now on our train after a platform staff announcement telling them to ignore the displays.

 

Plenty more work to do on Dobris this week before we take it to St Neots show at the weekend.