"Awaiting total hip replacement"

Due to personal circumstances I have to have my op at Good Hope. I am terrified to be honest. I have collapsed lower spine and now have a curved spine as well. I have constant back pain which is not relieved by analgesia. My hip pain is nothing compared to my back pain. My sugeon said in a letter that I have "moderate pain in my back". If my pain is "moderate", then what does this man consider severe? My first visit got a flippant remark from the surgeon stating "that I am not a back specialist", when I mentioned my back pain. No referral. No further investigations. No nothing. As a result in trusting a so-called "expert", I have endured my "moderate" pain for months which often results in my screaming with pain and very seriously considering swallowing dozens of paracetamol to just end it all. My curved spine was only discovered on my second visit to the surgeon after yet again, I complained about my back pain and he sent me for an X-Ray. FIve months later and a visit to the GP for even stronger pain-killers it transpired that no mention of my curved spine or a report of the X-Ray had been sent to the GP. Indeed, no mention of this X-Ray was even in my own out-patient letter never mind an honest and truthful communication to the GP. Now, my op is with a surgeon whom I have never seen. Can I trust this unknown man to perform a hip replacement with someone who has both a collapsed and a curved spine? I feel that i am just another moaning OAP and another piece of rotten, diseased meat along the Good Hope conveyor belt. I am undecided about having this op but know that if I don't, my long-tern outcome and independent mobility is not good. Yes, I am terrified as to what this surgeon will do to me and what will be the outcome as regards my spine. No-one has discussed this with me. I am not another piece of diseased and rotten meat. I am a human being and my body is just that, my body. No-one really cares or is bothered. To prove this point, there is no communication between surgeon and GP which is not only disgusting but borders on neglect. My future is very bleak and those paracetamol look very inviting.