by David Harris

Created on: August 07, 2008   Last Updated: August 20, 2008

About ten years ago my wife slipped and fell heavily on her right knee. It seemed to recover OK, so she did nothing about it. A few years later she did it again. From then on it always hurt. At first just a little but over the next few years it got worse and then she had to use a stick. Finally it got so bad that walking - and other everyday acts - were quite painful. We hadn't realised how this affected all aspects of our life and it put some strain on our relationship.

Before she couldn't walk at all, she was referred by our doctor to an nearby orthopaedic unit. The surgeon there determined that her knee joint was essentially destroyed and needed total replacement. From that point on, despite our strained relationship, I decided that maybe if the pain was gone the strain would go too and so I should support her in every way possible.

The first trial was as a result of the pre-operation assessment she underwent. As a result of this the operation was postponed for investigation of a possible minor infection. Because the major cause of failures of this type of operation is wound infection, you need to be infection-free before they'll operate. If we'd waited for NHS (public health - we're in the UK) treatment, it would've been months. Private health insurance would only cover part of the costs. We were short of money already but I had no doubts: the moment we heard we needed this we called a private hospital. She saw a consultant the very next day.

It took a month to complete the investigations and she was given the all-clear. I arranged for notification to be delivered to the orthopaedic unit the same day, even offering to use motorbike & deliver it myself. I cajoled a date out of the hospital and emphasised that we'd take a short-notice cancellation. That was Wednesday. The next day the phone rang: "Can you come in Saturday?" "YES"!" Great! That means she won't have time to dwell on what's going to happen.

Saturday morning my grown-up daughter & I took my wife to the hospital, saw her into the prep area, had a chat with the surgical staff and then left her. At times like this the whole thing seems surreal - things can go wrong you don't know if you'll ever see her again. So you try not to dwell on it...

Later: we phoned the recovery ward and heard she was out of theatre and conscious so we high-tailed it up there. So far, all was well. Now began the hard part - three months of constant care, exercises and massaging to help the leg to heal and gain strength. The

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