Farida eventually had her knee replacement surgery at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. It was supposed to happen on Nawruz Day, 21 March, which is her new year. I don’t know whether having an operation on your new year is a good thing or a bad thing. Be that as it may, the scheduling of the operation was put back a day to 22 March. And then by a further week. But on the morning of the operation, we learned that it had been cancelled because she had an infection. It was then put back for a further week, and then for a week after that, until I began to wonder whether it would ever happen at all. Particularly as there was talk of Farida returning home. But to our relief, the operation did eventually take place on Wednesday 12 April. I have nothing but praise for Dr. Luke Jones and his team who carried out the operation.
It was a big 3 ½ hour operation, made worse because Farida’s fall, the week before Christmas, had been only the latest in a series of falls and for which she had multiple fractures. The bones in her left knee were all over the place and had to be scooped out. It was also a high-risk operation because of her frailty and the fact that she weighed barely six stone. But sometimes risks have to be taken in exchange for a better quality of life. The operation went as good as could be expected and the Farida is now having to re-learn to walk.
Following the operation, Farida spend a further two weeks at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital before being moved to Willesden Centre for Health and Care, where she spent a further two weeks, before returning home on Monday 15 May. We are glad to have her home because it has been so long. We feel so tired.
We are lucky in having so many modern state of the art hospitals near us. But with the exception of West Middlesex Hospital, which is always bustling, they all seem so quiet. Is it because there is no money to staff them up? Chelsea and Westminster was much quieter than I would have expected for a London teaching hospital. Willesden Centre was like the wide-open spaces, walking down empty corridors without seeing a soul.
BRUCE AND HOLLY 