Me, myself & the NHS

My chronic pain journey, like many others, sadly spans over decades, rather than years. My poor body, has had to endure more procedures and operations, than the Vontrap family might have endured, in an entire lifetime. I also think I've visited every hospital, within the West Midlands area. There were even jokes that I should have tour t-shirts made, with all the names of the hospitals and years, printed on the back. Whilst the majority of hospitals I've visited, have provided great care, there is quite often one aspect missed, mental health awareness. I have a femoral retroversion. It's a hip condition which I've had from birth. Fortunately for me, it didn't start to give me symptoms until my early 20's, but it's not something that's easily fixed. I've been under the care of my local orthopaedic hospital, for around 8 years now. It feels like my second home. I've had 5 operations there in the last 6 years, and their care has alwa...

It's been 18 days and 2 hours since I made my way down to theatre, for the next instalment of 'operation fix Hannah', chapter 8,594 - the left hip arthroscopy. I was initially given 4th October as my operation date, but then they broke my heart by moving it to the 8th November (I'm aware that sounds ridiculously dramatic), but on the morning of 10th October, I received another call, this time offering me a cancellation for 14th October. My heart was racing! I had three days, THREE! What proceeded, were two stressful hours of phone calls to my husband, Mother and discussions with work, and maybe a bit (ok, a lot) of flapping by myself. Thankfully, I was able to accept the date. Luckily I had already batch cooked to within an inch of my life, but I still had a lot more organising to do, aka; briefing the husband of his chores. For some unknown reason, I decided at about 5pm the night before, to make pumpkin pie and 8 really shit mince pies - no really, they were...