All this and his wig is wearing out too

Michael came over to my house last night, he usually visits on a Friday night for a couple of hours. He was in a great deal of pain with his leg, two years ago he had a new knee joint fitted, which has never healed. He suffered a stroke in his teens, which left him partially paralyzed down his right side, so he limped and his left leg was subjected to more wear and tear as a result. Over the years his knee joint wore out and though it was uncomfortable for him to walk he managed quite well. He was persuaded by his doctor to have the operation that (as he put it) would change his life.

The surgeon performing the operation informed Mike that millions of people have this operation every year, and within days are out of hospital and gadding about like young colts. I remember telling mike some scary stories I had heard about unfortunates who had undergone this type of surgery and most definitely hadn't been able to gad about like young colts, in fact one or two of them couldn't gad at all.

Despite all this Mike went ahead, on the day of his surgery eight other people had the same operation, and all of them went home under their own steam after three days. All but mike who stayed in hospital for over two weeks, he spent a further four month housebound and tied to a chair because he couldn't even put his foot on the floor without suffering excruciating pain. His left leg, which once was a mirror image of his right leg, had swollen to the size of a football, and looked very angry. It could not be bent at the knee, nor could it be touched and his foot was beginning to swell too.

Mike protested to whoever would listen, his doctor, his physio nurse (who insisted on trying to bend the unbendable) and the surgeon who performed the operation, and they all told him that his leg was fine. He was sent to another specialist to see what could be done, and over the weekend he had in his possession the x-rays of his knee, he brought them round and when I looked I couldn't believe what I saw. Now I have no medical training, but even I know that a knee joint shouldn't look like the hinge of a door, I'm not kidding, at first I thought it was a wind up, but this is seriously deadly stuff.

He is told that the operation went well, yet he was in hospital far longer than he should have been. He spent months unable to walk or bend his knee, and he is told that this is normal, despite originally being told that he would be up and about in days. He has suffered two years of pain from a swollen knee that looks as angry as the day it was cut. And now he is being asked to undergo another operation so that they can find out what is wrong with a knee that they still insist hasn't anything wrong with it.

In the meantime poor old Mike continues to drag himself and his leg to my house on Friday nights just to get out of the house I think, and where once he limped on one leg, he now limps on two, not an easy thing to do. I watch him shuffling slowly up my garden path and even the slugs and snails beep their horns at him to get out of the way.