Bravo has left the building.

Ha, ha, who thought this was a flounce? (Don’t know why it would be…)

The building I have left, is, in fact, the hospital – the Bupa Cromwell Hospital to be precise. For the last few months I have been unable to walk more than 25 yards or so without getting a pain in my left calf – a bit like the pain you get after exercise when you haven’t done any exercise for a while, only more severe. It was first diagnosed (by my doctor in Cyprus,) as a magnesium defiency, but magnesium supplements didn’t help, so I consulted a doctor in London when I arrived, via BUPA. I was referred to a consultant who diagnosed the occluded (blocked,) artery in my left thigh. Cutting a long story short, they poked a thin pipe with a balloon on the end into my right groin, fed it through to the blockage site, then blew up the balloon. It didn’t work the first time, so I’ve just had the operation repeated, this time with the addition of a stent – a metal mesh pipe – to support the artery. This time, it worked, and I was able to walk half a mile from the hospital to Earls’s Court tube station when I left the hospital the day after the operation.

Now I have to give up smoking 😦

26 thoughts on “Bravo has left the building.”

  1. Glad you are feeling better. I had a DVT once, not caused by flying or sitting on my arse for too long, but at the site of a very bad muscle tear in my calf. The tear did not hurt much but the DVT did. I imagine this was much the same as your problem. 😦

  3. Bravo: You will probably have to explain this to security every time you set of the metal detector at the airport, I should print it out and carry it with you 🙂

    Just curious, does smoking cause artery blockages in the legs?

  7. Bravo,

    Pleased to read that it all went well. I had a total blockage of the aorta in my right leg caused by a clot flying off from a serious abdominal operation some 20 years ago. I suffered for a year before they could operate and insert a teflon graft. Once it was in place and after my wounds had healed I never looked back and could walk normally immediately.

    LW, smoking can cause artery blockages in the legs.

  9. Toc, a bypass was Plan C if this didn’t work. Happy it didn’t come to that 🙂

    Indeed Christina!

    btw, talking about bypass surgery – did you know you have a ‘spare’ vein in your leg and that’s the one they use, even for coronary bypasses?

  13. Bravo, I’m so pleased you are well again, what a thing to go through, but pleased all is well now. Keep up the walking, its the best form of exercise, apart from opening a bottle of course 🙂 My good wishes to you.

  19. The operation itself was quite straight forward, Boadicea, in fact it was a bit like watching an episode of ‘House.’ It was done under a sedative and local anaesthetic and the I watched the whole thing on the screen the surgeon used to see what he was doing. It was quite fascinating to watch the artery shading itself in on the blank background when the surgeon withdrew the probe – like water filling a drain after rain 🙂

  20. My mother had both knees replaced under local anaesthetic, and a friend recently had a heart operation under a local anaesthetic. Both watched the ‘process’.

    I can’t even watch ‘hospital’ programs. I certainly couldn’t watch anyone operating on me – knock me out first!

  21. Nooooo! I want (and need) to be unconscious before anyone starts mucking about with my insides or (shudder!) my fangs.

    OZ

  22. I had it done in Dallas about 6/7 years ago, they went in at the groin and wended their way right to the heart, all on the TV. Didn’t feel a thing. They just give a sedative.
    Even more jolly was the one down the throat to inspect the gall bladder and the one down the nose to inspect the vocal cords. I think I’ve been on TV more on the inside than out.
    The artform being just think elsewhere!

  26. Erm, excuse me, but The Chariot is a smoking site. 🙄
    Tell me about it Bravo – the worst thing about becoming diabetic was being forbidden to eat cheese.

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