(0:00) She obviously wasn’t quite sure what was going on. She said, so when did you have your operation done? (0:04) To which I said, well yesterday, yesterday evening actually. And her reaction was along the lines of (0:09) what? Because they’d never had one of your patients there before.
It wasn’t a hip story at all, it was (0:15) a groin strain story. I started to feel pain in my groin and I thought I’ve got a great groin strain. (0:22) Athletes get a groin strain.
And I probably spent four or five months thinking I’ve got a groin (0:26) strain. And guess what? It’s getting worse. Until an old colleague of mine, former colleague, (0:32) I told, I complained to him about it because he’s got all sorts of things wrong with him.
(0:36) And he said, aha, you haven’t got a groin strain. That’s just where you feel the pain. (0:39) You need a new hip.
The denial went on for a while and I thought, no, I’m just going to get better. (0:44) I’m going to go for a run tonight. And I tried to go for a run one night and it didn’t end very well.
(0:50) But a couple of weeks later, I thought I’m going to go for another run. But this time I’m going (0:55) to run 100 yards and walk 100 yards and we’ll see how that goes. And that went quite well.
I managed (1:01) to cover a couple of miles like that. The only problem was I couldn’t get out of bed the following (1:05) morning because the pain was so bad. My partner had been to you for a knee construction and she (1:12) had raved about the two of you and the job you’d done.
Turned up, had the operation, (1:19) did my little star jump thing. (1:24) That’s not hurting. (1:25) When did we finish the surgery? (1:27) I think it was like three hours ago.
(1:29) I found I could walk completely effortlessly down the corridor. So I thought, OK, you know, let’s see what happens if I try and do something a bit more than that. (1:40) And, you know, my star jumps were extremely unpainful and perfectly comfortable.
(1:45) Got a train to Twyford, got a taxi from there, walked into Lyndon Hill Convalescent Home. (1:54) The woman behind reception, I said, you know, my name’s Tom Lewis, I’ve come for two or three days, something like that. (1:58) They were used to people coming in in wheelchairs and crutches and Zimmer frames.
(2:04) And they’d never seen anything like me. So I was treated as a celebrity the whole time I was there for no good reason. (2:10) And on my birthday that year, the 28th of March, I was skiing, which was 20 days on from the operation.
(2:17) And it was very sensible. It was very easy. You know, I’m not stupid.
I’m sometimes reckless, but I’m not stupid. (2:27) Just very quietly down green and blue slopes. That was enough.
(2:31) I wanted to be on the mountain. I wasn’t trying to prove anything. I just wanted to breathe some mountain air and see some views.
(2:36) Yeah, I still had a swelling here. I was still getting through an awful lot of frozen peas, getting the swelling to go down. (2:44) So I skied with the swelling.
That didn’t really cause me any problems. (2:48) Christian, it’s a cliche to say you gave me my life back. And I’m sure everybody says that to you.
(2:54) But you really did. You know, I’ve got two eight-year-olds. They were six-year-olds then.
(2:59) I couldn’t run after them. So, you know, I took them out. I wasn’t fully in control of them.
(3:04) Because if they decided to run away, all I could do was shout at them. It was bad. A bad situation to be in.
(3:11) You know, old people go downhill incredibly quickly. And this, the hip, if it had not been sorted out as well as you’ve sorted mine out, (3:20) would have stopped me exercising. I would have put on weight.
I have a tendency to put on weight if I don’t exercise anyway. (3:26) And I would be in a classic old person’s downward spiral. My stomach would be out here somewhere.
(3:31) All that stuff, which I couldn’t bear. So I had to meet you, and I did. And you’ve given me my life back.
(3:40) Thank you so much. (3:41) That is my story. And there’s no more to it than that, really.
(3:47) Physically, psychologically, mental health. We all talk about mental health the whole time these days. (3:52) My mental health was dramatically impaired.
(3:57) Life is so much easier when your body works. (3:59) I’m completely cured. Completely and utterly cured.
God bless you.
