The waiting game goes on. I write this blog knowing that I should be soundly anaesthetised at the moment while my misbehaving mitral valve is reassembled with gore-tex threads. But again more pressing cases have displaced me, and I was phoned yesterday by the surgeon who very apologetically told me that the operation is now tentatively scheduled for next Thursday.
For those unfamiliar with the symptoms of a regurgitating mitral valve, these are, at least in my case, relatively mild. My daily cycle to work and back, which totals 12 miles and extends from one end of Islington to the other, has become a little more testing in recent months, but this is not a debilitating heart condition (yet) which means I can safely be deferred. However, NHS policy states 'no more than two postponements', which means that the next appointment will likely go ahead.
Although the worst aspect of this is the need to go through the mental preparation all over again, there are a few positives. I was able to attend a great talk yesterday on lens development in the zebra fish, today is my son's 12th birthday, I will be able to go to a party this Saturday, and I'll be able to use my ticket for the Blue Skies debate at the Wellcome Trust on Monday (#sciblue on Twitter). The announcement today that the Chief Executive of the MRC, Leszek Borysiewicz is to stand down, will I hope give the MRC the opportunity to appoint a basic scientist. Translational and applied research has swept blue skies research aside in recent years, and it would be timely for the MRC to demonstrate their commitment to basic science in the appointment of Sir Les' successor.
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Sorry, what is a final of your story with operation? It is interesting, because it is story about organization of Medicine and Health Care in UK actually.
ReplyDeleteThus, two postponement... What next? Have they done the operation? Or has they displaced your queue in third time? Or didn't you simply come to them?