Thankful Thursday

Last Friday I twisted my neck rather badly: just short of 12 months since I twisted my back on the croquet lawn.  This time it was in the gym.  On both occasions I was very grateful that it happened here in New Zealand and not in the UK.  Why?  Because the health care system here has separate services like physiotherapists which can be accessed other than through the hospital service.  In the UK I would have had to go to the doctor who would have to refer me to the hospital.  I would have been exceptionally fortunate to have seen a physiotherapist within 5 weeks of the incident.  In that time the neck would either have cleared itself up or have become so inflamed and tight that it would be as major job sorting it.  As it was I decided within three hours of it having happened that it was going to be a problem and the diclofenac sodium anti-inflamatory I'd taken was not relieving the pain.  So withing two hours of my decision I was having my neck treated and the next day the pain and discomfort was significantly less.  After another couple of treatments it's well on the mend.

So today I am very thankful for that particular aspect of the New Zealand health care system.

Thanks Colin

I had a good night laying on my tum and just waking every couple of hours to stretch my back and wonder where that particular earthquake was centered.  Answer: far enough away and deep enough not to be a problem.  I returned to the physio this afternoon.  I was stiff and rather wary because it seemed to be improving slowly but surely.  I got up off the table a new man.  Well that's exaggerating but I got up and was able to walk without pain.  Colin, for that is my hero's name, just asked how I was.  I replied that I was good - very good.  No question of John 5:8 or Mark 2:9 (it's amazing what a Prep School run by Roman Catholics instils into you for life) just good honest physio. 

Bugger!

Now in polite circles in the UK that's not a word to be bandied around lightly.  In New Zealand it can be heard even on the croquet lawns from the lips of refined 90 + year young ladies who would think it's restricted use in the UK very odd indeed.

Anyway on the lawns this afternoon I said something like 'Oh dear, that's inconvenient!' as I bent over to take a shot and a searing pain went across my back and through my hips.  That was the end of my croquet for the day - and probably for a week or two as well.  We shall see.

New Zealand is a good place for such an accident to happen though.  Within the hour I was on the physio's table having my back examined and worked on.  I have another appointment tomorrow afternoon.  I'd be lucky to see a physio in the UK for weeks - I'd probably be better before I could see one.

So this evening I am stiff and sore but I can walk.  I hope that I can get out of bed tomorrow! 

The West Wing

Yesterday an era came to an end for me.  I am a great fan of the US television drama series The West Wing.  I have watched most of it over the years but the first time I watched most of it the disc with the last episode on it was faulty and I never managed to get to the end.  So I bought the whole series and have been watching it over the last year.  On Sunday I did the ironing and I watched the last episode.  I will miss it.  I cannot think of a series that I have enjoyed more. 

I suppose my view is caused to some extent by the fact that I spent my career in government – albeit local government.  Until many years after I retired no one knew my politics (not even my wife).  This was partly because I have been involved in elections most of my career (I was a Scottish Depute Returning Officer and Returning Officer for 20 years – a strictly non-political officer of the Crown) and in the UK we have a tradition of non-political senior government officers (a tradition which changed to an extent during my time in government but which I never came to terms with).

However in the last year or so I have been less reticent about my views.  If I lived in the US I would be a Democrat.  As a beneficiary of the UK’s National Health Service without which I would probably not be alive (it is unlikely I would by now be able to get private insurance) I have long felt that too many were excluded from the health care systems of North America.  So President Obama’s victory today seems to me like a Good Thing.  Will the US be able to afford it?  I don’t know.  Will the UK continue to be able to afford it?  I don’t know.  With aging populations few of our economies will continue to be able to sustain the standards of wealth to which many of my generation have become accustomed.

But I do think that President Bartlet would have been proud of President Obama.

So what series shall I become addicted to next?

What Can't be Replaced?

I went to the Doctor this morning to get the results of my X-Ray. Apparently my right knee is wearing out on one side. The Doc - a splendidly direct and straightforward chap from Bavaria via the UK - said that I should see a Specialist for confirmation and "just get the knee replaced - a straightforward operation which would disrupt my life for about four weeks and give me 20 trouble free years." Apparently the waiting time is about the same in New Zealand as it is in the UK. I don't know anyone in the UK who has had a knee replacement but I know quite a few here. I'm not convinced that the Doc's optimism is justified. However the idea of having 20 years by having a knee replaced seems like a good deal although I'm not quite sure how a knee replacement cures cancer or prevents one being run over by a bus!

I Took my Knee to the Doc

I decided that it was about time to take my right knee to see the Doctor again. I took it to see a Doc in Napier in October 2006 because it had been giving me trouble for quite a while and I wanted to make sure that cycling wasn't going to do it any harm. He did all sorts of things to the knee and said that it was fine and that cycling would strengthen the muscles and would be positively beneficial. When I asked how he could tell he said that if it hadn't been then after what he'd just done to me he'd be scraping me off the ceiling. Now that's the sort of explanation I can understand.

It has given me trouble on and off ever since and I mentioned it to several Doctors who have all said the same thing adding that the sporadic nature of the pain could mean a loose piece of cartilage which would probably one day have to be removed. Anyway since last summer the knee has been swollen and it has been giving me quite a lot of trouble recently. Sometimes it makes me wake up in the night with jabs of pain when I fail to turn my lower leg when I turn my body. Now it's started to ache at night vas well as during the day.

So last night I made an appointment and saw a Doc at 0845 this morning. 'Everything' he said 'to do with the cartilage and so on is fine. You probably have arthritis.' Anyway I went off to Hawkes Bay Radiology and had an X-ray. This afternoon the Specialist will prepare a report and the Doc will get it tomorrow morning.

Health service is fast when you are paying for it directly and as you have the treatment. For the most part one does pay for non-accident health care in New Zealand although no-one, whether visitor or resident, pays for accident care.

Arthritis could be a bummer. Why? Because it could interfere with my croquet! Ah well.

I thought this was a pretty boring posting so I though I would treat you to an added photo.