I have had knee problems now for some years, in fact my first operation was over 20 years ago and then I under went a couple of major operations in 1994, since then I had always known that the next step would be knee replacements but my surgeon wanted to get as many years out of the current situation as we could.
However in 2006 I had to go back for yet another arthroscopy but he still wouldn’t consider anything more radical. It was another 18 months before I took the decision to go back and have another go at him so in May 2008 I made an appointment to see if he could now look at further surgery. The appointment was set and he agreed that it was time, however he would make the decision on what sort of replacement I would have after he had seen the results of the MRI scan, a week later and before the results of the scan I asked if we could set a date and one was set for the following week, so 3 weeks after seeing him I was booked in. The results had shown that there was sufficient good knee on the outside to make unicompartmental replacements the best option baring in mind I would probably require more surgery in about 15 years, however I decided I wanted both knees done together but the final decision would be up to the anaesthetist.
Tuesday 27th May arrived and I booked into the hospital just after 9am, my surgeon started his theatre list just after 1pm but I didn’t know where I was on the list, time pasted slowly and I had been dressed in my gown since 2pm, I was watching an episode of Taggert and at 4.30pm the porter came to take me down, I never found out who the murderer was :) I was taken to the pre-theatre room where I was checked and given my name tag just to make sure they had the right person, then wheeled through to where the anaesthetic would be administered, as well as a general and on the advice of Mr Harper I would be having an epidural, which I thought was going to be quite painful but it wasn’t. At 5.25pm I lay back down on the trolley and that was the last I remember until I looked at the clock at 7.50pm in ITU. I had absolutely no pain, which wasn’t a surprise since I had been given the epidural, during the night I had a couple of units of blood and some antibiotics, it was a long night 
I was eventually taken back to my room at about 11.30am, my left leg was completely numb but I had already been able to do leg raises with the right. I was left in bed all day Wednesday and the epidural eventually came out first thing on Thursday morning. Clare my Physiotherapist arrived mid morning with a zimmer frame at least I would be able to get to the bathroom, with the aid of another nurse they had me on my feet but before I could take a few steps I was light headed and feeling a little queasy, so I was sat back down which was a little disappointing, but Clare would be back in the afternoon. Early afternoon Clare was back and we had a better go, now I had some independence – fantastic.
Clare was back again on Friday morning and asked if we should try crutches, I wanted to get going so off she went and the zimmer went with her, progress needs to be made and the zimmer was too much of a safety net. Having used crutches before I think I had a bit of advantage, so they weren’t a problem for me and surprisingly the knees felt pretty strong although bending them is the obvious problem. Try getting out of a chair without using your legs, even worse try getting off the toilet. I probably have an advantage over older people who undertake replacements as I have quite good upper body and arm strength, even so I don’t think there was another person on the unit who had both knees done at the same time and all the nursing staff kept saying how brave I was, I didn’t feel brave at all, I just wanted to get it all out of the way in one go. This way I get back to diving and exercise a lot sooner. I have a good couple of days doing laps of the corridors of Stafford Suite and by Saturday they decided it was time for me to go home, I had ticked all Clare’s boxes for walking and stairs, had a shower and no problems rising from chairs. So I am now at home and getting out for a walk when the weather is good, I was out for about 20 mins earlier which was good, although the worst time of the day is during the night as you just can’t get comfortable lying in bed.
June 5th, 2008
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I seem to be on something of a high at the moment. I had a really good day on Saturday and today I exceeded my own expectations in the pool, I started back in the pool just over a week ago and was pleased with my 40+ lengths, with each session I got more out of it and increased the length of my sessions, today I planned to reach my longest distance so far of 68 lengths 
when I got there I felt I should do a few more so another couple of sets got me to 80. OK still fine lets see how many more, 3 more sets and a couple of lengths can’t be too hard so that was the goal for today and I succeeded, so that’s the 100 (2500m) mark. I know I shouldn’t say it but I am very pleased with myself and I was more pleased as the times of each set had improved from last weeks sessions.
May 14th, 2007
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When I decided to undertake the GUE fundamentals course I didn’t know that I had to agree to a set of standard some of which I wasn’t overly comfortable in agreeing to, this is a section of one of them “I understand and agree that I have a responsibility to remain fit and not to become obese or grossly overweight”.
I had read the standards and the requirements for the course and the one section I was confident with was the swim test, I used to swim quite a lot but over the years it isn’t something I am fond of, I find repetitive lengths up and down the pool boring.
The Fundamentals standard is 275m in 14 minutes, not exactly difficult so in the few weeks before the course I went down to the gym just to make sure, I was doing the distance (11 lengths) in just under 8 minutes. So the day of the swim test on the course I left the pool a little disappointed as I think it took just over 9 minutes although I will blame Fin as I couldn’t get past him in the narrow lane
This week I have been in the pool each morning, the first couple of days I went into the gym first and then did the required 11 lengths again no problem with my time. Yesterday I decided to see how many lengths I could do in the 14 minute standard and it was good to find I got to 18 lengths (425m) and I did 30 lengths in total which was my longest swim for ages.
Today I took it a little further and I have decided to concentrate on my swimming, again I did the 18 lengths in the time and then went on to do sets of 6 lengths in 4.15, 4.16, 4.17 and the final set at 4.20. I took about a minute rests between sets and before I had realised I had done 42 lengths or 1050m :)
I have now found something to work on and my daily routine will start with swimming. I wasn’t comfortable with agreeing to the standards but it has now given me the determindation to at least have a crack at improving my fitness.
May 4th, 2007
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I was diving again at the weekend but and there does always seem to be a but, it didn’t go quite to plan. Just when I think I am moving forward the crappy bits comes and slaps me down. I had wanted to come away from the weekend having achieved a couple of things, I didn’t which was very disappointing. I had a couple of mates trying to put a positive angle on things but it still didn’t work, I left with some decisions to make. The main one has been made and there is no turning back.
We have the radio on at work and I heard a track which I had recently heard before but this morning the words made me think, I just kept hearing a friend of mine repeating “Stop being hard on yourself”, “Don’t let your demons pull you down”. I suppose this is where I have to admit that the lines of the song are from the new Take Thank single - Shine, I don’t normally pay much attention to music, it’s there in the back ground but I couldn’t tell you what had just been playing.
Now all I have to do is think about the words and everything should be OK - 
February 27th, 2007
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I wrote this a while ago but it seems to be a good time to make it public.
Wow where do I start….. I have been a member of a very sucessful dive forum for nearly 4 years and over that time I have met a number of wonderful people and some I wouldn’t want to meet again, but they are the few. I have no idea if it is me who is getting bored with the whole forum thing or is it the people who now seem to frequent them, I really hope it isn’t me.
I recently had to log off and only log back in when I needed to, which wasn’t often, the first day without it was like suffering a bereavement and I struggled not to lurk but if I was logged in all the time, by now my blood pressure would be through the roof and I would have more red blobs than everyone else in history, rather ironic as things have turned out.
Why is it people feel the need to tell the world their drama’s, do they think the rest of the readership wants to know - I have news for them nobody cares, just like no one cares what I write although I am too cowardly to make this public, so it is just for my own amusment.
At the end of last year I suffered what I would probably call an emotional breakdown, I suppose old age kicked in, I am probably just at the time of life when things get you down and you have to take time out and reassess your life, lucklily I had a few friends around to make sure I was OK.
I hope it is a “winter thing” and people aren’t diving but everyone seems to be ranting about absolutely nothing and it’s the same old crap which is being trawled up. I never thought I would feel like this about a place I call my club, if it was an actual club I would have walked out by now, but its only the internet and I can always turn off.
What has happened to YD by some so called members can only be described as shameful and very sad. There are a couple of members who have declared themselves but some obviously haven’t - those are the cowards in my book. If it was my site I would ban them but I suspect that isn’t going to happen - pity they spoilt it for the rest of use though.
February 15th, 2007
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It’s almost here, a planned dive trip to Porthkerris in Cornwall. We decided on this trip because there was already one planned but it was full, so it was decided that because Gary Fox of Dive Action had purchased a new boat with a diver lift we would see if we could book him for the weekend. Gary’s boat Cornish Pussy wasn’t in the water at the time of booking but we were reliably informed that it would be kitted out and in the water for our trip. We have since heard that Cornish Pussy is a lovely dive boat and we are very much looking forward to diving from her.
I was given some B & B names and decided to book at Parc-an-grouse which looked to have some nice accommodation in a recent barn conversion. The weekend finally arrived and I set off on the 370 miles trip which took me just under 7 hours. I arrived at the B & B and then went off to find a couple of friends who were camping down near the beach. I then met up with Jules as we were sharing the accommodation and then walked into St Keverne for some dinner and a couple of beers. Friday morning arrived and it was lovely and sunny but soon the heavens opened and we didn’t know if we would dive or not. It eventually dried up and we decided to go for a shore dive, Jules and I decided on a minimalistic approach to the dive and I just took in my 7ltr stage we agreed we would only do 10m max so there wasn’t a problem. Getting out in the surf was a bit of a problem for me and I fell over and bruised my leg on a rock. We were soon dekitted and off to Roskilly’s for an ice cream, this was going to become a trend over the next few days.
We then agreed to meet up in the White Hart for the evening meal and a few beers. We were meeting up on Saturday morning at Dive Action at 9am for the usual form signing and I need a fill in the stage, soon we were off to the beach at Porthoustock where we were going to transfer our kit from the beach to the boat via RIB, all went quite well until I was putting my suit on and I ripped my wrist seal, Caroline went back to her car for a new seal and some gaffer tape so we could make some repairs. We were then off and the dive site wasn’t very far so we were soon in the water, the sea state was what you call flat calm with hardly a ripple.
The first dive was Woodford Wall which would have been stunning had there been a very slight current, as all the plumose and Jewel anenomes awere tightly closed, there were quite a lot of wrasse and along the wall, I had agreed with Mal that I would let him know when I got down to 100bar as I needed the rest for the second dive. Gary needed fuel so we headed of to Falmouth for to fill up and while we were there the heavens opened, but we were soon on our way to the next dive site which was the wreck of the Epsilon which was quite flat but a nice scenic dive again the viz was quite good and I enjoyed the very relaxing dive. I did however get very wet on this dive the tempory wrist repair didn’t hold up and I was glad to get back to shore and off to the B & B to change before we went off to Roskilly’s for yet another ice cream.
The plan had been to have a BBQ on the beach and join the guys from the other group but for some reason we couldn’t drag ourselves away, the weather was looking a bit doubtful and although I was still very cold from my soaking we stayed at Roskilly’s for something to eat, I couldn’t make my mind up and by the time I did all the baked potatoes were gone but they made me a lovely pizza although very filling. Some even had another ice cream or cream tea to finish the meal off. We then headed off to the beach to be sociable and it was actually less windy at the beach than it was further inland. I met several people who I hadn’t seen before including Kirstie and Paul from YD, we had joked about banana loaf recipes a few weeks before so when Paul asked if I had brought one I retreived it from the car, it seem to go down well so my baking skills can’t be too bad. I stayed for a couple of drinks and then Mal, Jules and I headed back to Parc an Grouse.
Sunday wasn’t too bad and we headed back down to the beach to load the RIB with the filled cylinders, again we didn’t have to travel too far to the dive site and we were soon kitting up ready to go. As soon as I left the boat I knew the wrist seal wasn’t going to hold and on the decent I attracted Mal’s attention and signalled I had a problem, he was very good about it and we were soon back on the boat having a hot chocolate, which had appeared on the boat today. Gary asked why I hadn’t asked him to repair my suit overnight and I said I didn’t think he would want to do that on a Saturday night, I think he thought I was mad. Gary gave Andy (Haggis) a shout who was holding station on the Dive Action RIB close by, Andy was going back to the shop to fill cylinders and agreed to repair my seal during our interval. Top man.
Again we had pasties for lunch and I brought the other banana loaf on board which seemed to go down well, my suit arrived back just as I suggested that if people wanted to dive we could get off, the dive was the Mohegan this was a very enjoyable dive, for one I wouldn’t have missed out on the dive and was glad I was able to dive, we went down the shot and I tried to turn on my torch but nothing happened, it was quite light on the wreck and I was able to tour around without a problem, Mal’s torch lightlighted some of the seabed life and it was lovely just to meander around. We came across 3 very large boilers and some capstans, all of a sudden my eyeline was taken by something some metres away, I turned just in time to see a cormorant leaving the bottom I check my computer we were at 24m I couldn’t believe it was down that deep. Mal signalled the end of the dive and he deployed his smb again and we make our way to the surface, we were the last pair on the boat. It was an excellent dive to end the day with. Back on the beach we said our goodbyes to those not staying the night and off we went to Dive Action to settle our boat and gas bills. There was yet another trip to Roskilly’s were we met up with some of the group from the other boat. We had booked a table at a pub/resturant called the Five Pilchards in Porthallow which was excellent, I had a seafood chowder followed by pork Lion I think almost as much main meal went back as had arrived which was nothing to do with the food but everything to do with the chowder which was extreamly filling, next time I’ll skip the starter.
This was a great trip although it took me almost 2 hours longer to get home than it did to get down, I had pulled into a lay-by for a nap as I was shattered and I had forgotten to turn my lights off, together with the radio on I flattened the battery so had I call the break down service they were very good and I was soon back on the road. Here’s to next year and the return trip.
August 23rd, 2006
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I have always had an OMS wing, I don’t really want to change but I am getting a little frustrated with them. I bought my wing in about 99 or 2000 can’t remember when, I bought it with the IQ pack which I find extremely comfortable. Last year I decided I didn’t like the integrated pockets on the IQ pack and changed it for a comfort harness, which is probably very comfy if you don’t have a chest but I found it was very uncomfortable under the arms. Luckily I was able to sell that quite quickly and bought one of the newer IQ packs which didn’t have the pockets.
What I find annoying about it though is the holes in the IQpack don’t line up properly with the holes in the backplate and it is a struggle to get them to match up. For some reason this wasn’t as much of a problem with the SDS latching system but I have recently changed to a bigger twinset and it is becoming frustrating. The other week I bought a stainless steel backplate to replace the aluminium one, I picked it up from Jack and we tried it on the wing and twins, it took a bit of forcing to get it in what we thought was the right place we actually had to remove the eyelets from the IQpack so the hole would stretch to the right position, I don’t really like cutting or altering kit. When I dived with it on our Salcombe trip I realised that although I have always used the top holes we had positioned the set on the bottom set, this made the set sit too low down and I was a little uncomfortable.
Although I don’t like cutting and altering kit I don’t seem to have a choice, but what I don’t understand is why OMS haven’t worked this out surely it can’t be difficult to make kit so it lines up will all elements.
June 18th, 2006
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