Blog posts

—March—

Way back in 2012 I had a hip replacement operation, with an amazing effect – I had been hobbling progressively worse over several years, and suddenly I could leap around as before. Anyway, recently I've had knee problems too, so now I'm going to have a nicely engineered bit of knee joint bearing, just on the side that is worn down. It seems most people are either knock-kneed (or "X-legs" as it's called in Japanese) or bow-legged ("O-legs"); I'm X, so the outside of the joint gets more wear, and that's the bit I'll have replaced. Medical technology has been quietly making some tremendous advances; one aspect of this is that with an MRI scan you get effectively complete 3D data for the shape of the joint, so in principle you can make parts to fit precisely.

Anyway, I will be out of action for about two weeks from Monday 17th March, and I apologise in advance for the inevitable delays this will cause. Please bear with us...

Update! March 24: last week's operation was a success, and I getting my mobility back... and I am now home again! (March 30). It will take a while to catch up on the backlog...

Of course there is nothing gory, just an X-ray of my knee...

See the gory details!

My new knee! The white mechanical bits are metal (titanium, I think), and the gap between them is a high-grade polyethylene bearing, which is completely invisible to X-rays.