"Full knee replacement"

An amazing team led by a consummate professional in his field  Mr Shenoy.  

To begin with, they explained everything to give me the reassurance I needed, answered all my questions including those around pain management with Mr Shenoy and his medical colleagues fully managing my expectations and advising it would very likely be a painful procedure. They didn't lie! That said, I much prefer the facts as opposed to the -You might experience some minor discomfort- supposed reassurances. 

The procedure itself was made more arduous for the team as I proved extremely difficult under the general anesthetic (screaming blue murder with arms flailing apparently) such that on completing the procedure I was taken to their High Dependency Unit for monitoring. All I can say is that the staff there were as professional as one would expect with huge amounts of compassion thrown in.

24 Hours later I was transferred to NTC ward 23, room 5 and was treated like royalty by their staff for the rest of my stay. I did overstay my welcome because of my shenanigans in theatre but no one held a grudge. 😃

All I can say is the efforts and the different skill sets of all medical  and non medical staff who had the misfortune to deal with me were appreciated beyond measure! My heartfelt thanks to each and everyone of you. I did jot names down but I lost my list as is typical of me and as a mere man, what do you expect🤔.  I also apologise to the nurse  in the HDU who asked me to give feedback and to let her know. 

Finally and I know I've blathered on a bit but on a totally different subject, I've travelled extensively over the years and have always enjoyed meeting people of different cultures. So it was during my 7 day stay in the Victoria, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting an Indian, a Pole, an Indonesian, a Nigerian, a Romanian, a Latvian and a South African and given there is so much negative news about immigrants, it was totally refreshing to meet a bunch of people from different backgrounds in a fairly small hospital population. Every one took the time out to chat with me, or bring me a cuppa, tell me their story and all the while working in harmony to provide a first class seamless service regardless of their role. This was a superb example of what is not generally shown on the news concerning peoples from a multinational background working together. We are indeed all 'Jock Tamson's bairns'.

For me, Victoria hospital is a superb example of an NHS struggling with staff shortages, funding and God knows what else while the country and the world is broken! Regardless, you gave me help, treatment and compassion and now......you give me hope.