Shock news

Our first meeting with Mr Calder did not go to plan... We arrived at Stanmore with plenty of time to spare - checked in with the receptionist only to discover that we were due in the outpatients clinic in Bolsover Street, central London and a ten minute walk from work! We hopped back on the tube and dashed to Bolsover Street, arriving only 50 minutes late!
Following a series of more xrays, I was once again stripped to my pants and asked to walk across the room so everyone to have a look at my funny legs. Mr Calder and his registrar were openly surprised at the current angle of my leg.

As expected, the xrays displayed an angular deformity, which could be corrected with the use of yet another Taylor Spatial Frame - this was shock number one... It also became clear that it was not just my tibia which longer on my right side to my left. My right femur is around 2cms longer than my left one - this is a a result of the very early surgery, where my growth plate in my right tibia was destroyed by the femur was allowed to continue to grow. Therefore, using another TSF to correct the deformity of the tibia would once again cause bone growth on my right side, which would increase the discrepancy by a further 3cms or so - therefore ultimately leaving me 4+cms longer on my right than left. This was something which was very hard to get my head around, as I was already 2cm longer on the right side and this was causing me problems with my walking and lower back. Mr Calder advised that the best way to manage this was once the TSF was removed, break the right femur, remove the required amount of bone to ensure equal leg length, rod the bone with an internal nail fixation and compress the break. This was yet another invasive and painful procedure which would see me in hospital for another five days and non-weight bearing for a further 4-6 weeks. I was looking at a six to nine month stretch incapacitated...

I decided that I would not do anything until the end of the GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP season in May 2009 as I was really enjoying the account and looking forward to managing the Final at Twickenham. We agreed to meet Mr Calder again in February 2009 to finalise our plans for the year ahead.