"Joint School at Cannock Chase Hospital"

Last week I attended my second “joint school” session as I am due to have my second hip replacement surgery in 7 weeks time. It was meant to be in 2 but sadly it had to change as I wasn’t well enough last time. This time though I thought shall I go because I had already been to the one before my first surgery, which was amazing by the way and my nurse suggested I attend and I am soooooo glad that I did!!!. 

As per usual I was the youngest person there as I’m only in my 40’s lol. I’ve had arthritis (rheumatoid/sero negative/osteoarthritis) for my entire life so both of my hips were absolutely knackered!. I am a very active person so I have been sporty and walking a lot throughout my life. 

So I went to the joint school and immediately both of the girls recognised me straight away and they both said hi to me which made me smile!. They then asked me to take a seat and brought me a coffee over so I could relax and chill out which was so sweet of them. So I got chatting to some of the other people who were attending and they had overheard me saying that it was my second op coming up so for them it was their first. They asked me lots of questions whilst we were waiting for everyone to be seated with a drink. Again they did that for everyone there. When we were all relaxed we filled out some questions on a form which took 2 seconds and then the two young ladies “Kirsty & Sian” who run the joint school went to the front and introduced themselves and then they went through from start to finish everything that we were going to experience and what would then be happening whilst in hospital. We had numerous opportunities to ask and answer questions and I asked loads!! lol, but I learnt so much and I had lots of questions for after the op that I had experienced and that I had forgotten about to contact them afterwards, and that really helped me to get a lot off of my chest and I felt soooo much better for it and the girls were so knowledgeable and made us come up with a goal to work towards after the operation. 

We were then introduced to the physio team who explained some of the exercises we need to do before the operation to strengthen our muscles and then they called us through to another room where they gave us new crutches for on the day of the operation and they remembered that I needed the “comfort grip” crutches due to my deformed hands and wrists which I thought was amazing!!. 

I had such a laugh with the staff as they all remembered me so I was so happy and left feeling extremely confident, relieved and ready to face the up and coming operation. They gave me some information to take home about the experiences and the exercises which I am going to keep on me so that if I have some more questions I have got it to hand, plus I was able to chat to the other people who were having their hip replacements too. The ones who were having their first round it good being able to talk to me about it all. I had kept a photo diary of the op and aftercare and my recovery from home so they all looked at it so they knew what to expect and they all left feeling good about what was going to happen and who the staff was going to be on the day.

The joint school is an invaluable resource and service for all those going through the process as I know that it isn’t available for all hospitals and the operations can be very scary and daunting especially if you don’t know what to expect. Please continue to hold these sessions as they are fantastic and I cannot wait to see them all again on the day of my operation, plus this time I will be skipping into the theatre lol.