Yesterday I had my review with Mr Garnham - so a day trip to Wolverhampton. I had a very interesting chat with a man involved in health and was interested in developing patient stories/communications on their health and learning about different health conditions.
When I got to the hospital, it said in the board that Mr Garnham was not going to be in clinic, so I was very disappointed, but I heard a nurse talking and saying, 'she has come all the way from London', so I was very lucky and Mr Garnham popped over to see me, having been giving lectures. He was very pleased to see how well I was doing at this stage, and I had to complete a form - a repeat of a form called DESH about upper limb function, one that I had completed for Rob in Bristol back in May - I think the scoring was significantly improved.
Whilst my right arm is not as affected as my left one was, we are still going to proceed as there is still an occluded subclavian artery, and in fact the scalenes were also more affected on the right, so we agreed that to resolve it would be better. So I am coming in on Thursday 21st November for pre-op assessment and admission because of the travelling and my surgery will take place on Friday 22nd November - 10 weeks after the first surgery.
There was a poster up asking for patients to come forward to give talks to junior doctors and I volunteered myself as I have documented my journey all this time and am interested in this exact type of work, and Mr Garnham seemed keen, so hopefully he will keep me on file for the future. Perhaps when I return for the review of my right arm.
I keep worrying it won't go as well the second time, or that I will have a pneumothorax (hole in the lung) following surgery. Maybe because apart from the chest pain, I did so well the first time round.
I am still doing physio, although there has been no further change to my exercises, and days I don't play my recorder I use my spirometer for breathing work.
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