Bionicness!!

I've said before (and no doubt I will say it again!) that I am absolutely in awe of surgeons and doctors.  Of anyone who can take out a body part and replace it with a new one but not only that but rewire everything so it all works as perfectly as in most cases better than it worked before.  I'm also fascinated by it.  I like to see and ask about x-rays, know what exactly they're looking at and see how things function.

I have ultrasounds every now and again on my heart (I have a heart murmur or a 'hole in the heart') and love to watch the sketchy picture on their monitor and see where my dizzy blood goes the wrong way through the hole.  The image is usually black and white but that little spurt of confused blood shows up as a blue flash and it great to see my own heart, which I can feel beating away while I'm watching it.

I've also had a few GFR & Renograms as I have CKD2 (chronic kidney disease stage 2), the tests tend to be done at the same time, well on the same day anyway.  These are to test kidney function and apart from the needles and the waiting around, these tests also fascinate me.
GFR stands for Glomerular filtration rate-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renal_function and one of the best aspects is I get to be scanned with a geiger counter (at least I think that's what it is!) and it beeps as it goes up my arm where the radioactive liquid has been injected.  Its quite a surreal experience but fun all the same.  Blood is then taken every hour for 4 hours to monitor how the liquid is being filtered (I think) and that's the not do fun part.
The Renogram is similar but only lasts about half an hour.  A liquid is injected which moved through quite quickly and makes you wee for England, there is just soooo much.  I have to sit with my back rigid up against an x-ray machine without moving for half an hour while the liquid is traced working its way through.  But on the screen I can see both kidneys, my left is enormous and my right is little and a bit shriveled up, and I can see the liquid trickling; honestly its quite fascinating and watching it makes sitting still (for a fidget like me) fairly easy.

But yesterday, best of all, I saw my specialist at the hospital for my 6 weekly post op appointment.  I had to have a few more x-rays done and then I got to purchase a disc from x-ray with all my knee x-rays on, including the MRI scan.  I don't profess to know what the MRI ones mean but they're interesting to look at!

This is my knee as it was back in October last year, very, very dislocated and very, very ouchy!

This is one from the MRI scan.  It looks like I've got a pony tail hanging over my leg (honestly, they're not that hairy)

And this looks like a bone you've give a dog to gnaw on.....it's my leg!!

And this shows the amazing bit of kit I now have in my right leg.  It goes half way up my thigh and half way down my lower leg.
This pic was taken 3 days after the op, you can still see the metal staples!!

And this one was taken yesterday, 21st May 2013, showing my sexy bent knee.


Fascinating pictures.  For me anyway, I feel.

And now I know you can get a disc for a small cost, I shall be doing that in future for everything I have done.



There was one not so good point about the appointment yesterday though.  Previous to it becoming dislocated I had planned on doing a charity parachute jump for breast cancer awareness.  My consultant, although he didn't say I couldn't do a jump, he did strongly advise against doing it as a slightly dodgy landing or a sudden gust of wind at the right time could cause problems and ultimately could shatter the bone where the rods are.

I wish I'd done it sooner now.  Hey ho.  So now I have to just wait a few years til this knee is proper fucked and then when there's nothing left to break or damage, I'll jump from a plane then.  I am determined to do it one day!!!