18 April 2005

I only had one appointment today – an appointment with my orthopaedics, Martin Richardson, in the afternoon. I did my usual exercise bike and mini trampoline in the morning and then exercises set by Neil and Rosemary.

My appointment time was at 2.50 p.m. I did some research on the internet to see if there is any commercial carkpark around that area but I couldn’t find any. I know there are so metered parking around there but it’s usually taken. I tried to look up the Epworth website but it says the carpark is for staff only. The easiest way seems to be taking a taxi. I called for the taxi at around 2.10 p.m. just in case the taxi takes forever to come. It has happened to me in the past that I called for a taxi and it didn’t turn up and I was late for my appointment. Surprisingly, the taxi turned up within 5 minutes and the traffic was not bad. I got to my appointment at about 2.30 p.m – 20 minutes earlier than scheduled time. The receptionist told me Martin is running a bit behind schedule today so I sat down next to a pile of trashy magzines.


It was about 3.45 p.m. when it’s finally my turn. The receptionist showed me to the consultation room – they usually put one patient in the room waiting while Martin sees another patient in another room. It’s quite boring waiting there on my own. Tim has accompanied me in the past but he’s busy today so I was there by myself. I didn’t look at my watch when Martin finally walked in. I think it must be around 4 p.m. – more than one hour behind schedule. I was actually glad Tim was not there with me. I can just imagine the complaint I’d get from him to keep him waiting. Martin didn’t appologise – doctors usually don’t for some reason. I guess like someone at MECRS once told me, you have to be patient to be a patient.

He checked my shoulder and was very happy with the progress. He told me that Andrew (Prof Kaye) has written him a note that he’s happy with my progress. I told him that I’m having my physio at Epworth now and thanked him for referring me to John Olver. He mentioned that there are other treatments (can’t remember the names now) - one involves the insertion of a telescope into the shoulder to repair the damanged tissue and another involves the insertion of a needle. He said he told me just to let me know that there is treatment if I ever need it but I don’t need it right now. He said he’s very happy with my progress. I asked him what would it take for me to gain a full recovery of the shoulder. He told me it’s all physio work now. He thinks I need to stretch out my shoulder a bit more so he said he’ll write a note to John to let him know. Neil just reminded me on the weekend that Rosemary told him I can’t really shrug my left shoulder. I’ve almost forgotten about it until Neil mentioned to me. I asked Martin about it and he said it’s the trapezius muscle that does the shrugging so I will need to work on that muscle. Again, that’s something I need to discuss with the physio. I told him that I’m quite happy with the physio at Epworth but so far we only concentrate on the leg but not the shoulder and arm. He said it’s time they look at the arm as well and he’ll write a note to John. He said he’ll also write a note to Prof Kaye. In a way I think I’m pretty lucky that Prof Kaye took interests in my progress and referred me to Martin when he found out I had a subluxed shoulder. Since Prof Kaye is quite well known and respected in the medical profession, everyone wants to be in his good books. I think Martin is quite keen to impress Prof Kaye as well.