Talking to a Pro

Having been told I need surgery for my completely ruptured hamstring, things started happening at a rapid pace once things were set in motion. From what seemed like a complete standstill, everything was happening at once now. I got a call from Capio Artro Clinic. The lady quickly explained to me that I basically had no choice but to accept the appointment time given to me. I didn't see any point in arguing with her since I wanted to get things over and done with as soon as possible.

The appointment was to be at 08:30 on the 29th of April.

Arriving at the Capio Artro Clinic was an interesting experience. These people are specialists at these type of injuries (and many other things). The appointment was basically a 30 minute long meeting to decide that I was going to go through hamstring surgery.

The chief surgeon said that without surgery, I may be able to regain 50-55% of current/maximum capacity. With surgery, the numbers were between 80-90% Needless to say, I chose the latter. I'm 45 and don't plan on growing old anytime soon. He had explained to me that the road to full recovery could be as long as 12 months with an initial convalescence of 4-8 weeks. The numbers seem to be varying quite a bit, but I guess that is up to genetics, rehab training, luck, etc.

I was also told that he would have wanted to have an initial appointment inside of two weeks of the date of the injury. We were at three weeks, short of one day. I was not impressed. "Funnily" enough, I've only been to Capio clinics the past three weeks.

As I left the clinic, I was told I'd be given an emergency surgery appointment. I was also informed by one of the nurses that I needed to get some special aids from my House Doctor such as a raised toilet seat and something that would make it easier for me to put my sock(s) on after surgery.

It's a rather odd feeling to have an injury that you don't feel any pain from (apart from when I go to the gym and put pressure on the leg or twist it at some abnormal angle). So, it was "going back to normal life", which in this case meant working, going to the gym, unpacking boxes at the house, etc.

Weird.