Yesterday Jono finally got seen in Tallaght Hospital after waiting for almost 18 months. Jono had a spinal fusion surgery done there in 2009 and was doing OK until a couple of years ago when he started deteriorating.

It’s a long trip from Sligo to Tallaght, almost 4 hours each way by public transport, and two hours waiting to be seen, but worth it to see the consultant who did the surgery. The consultant wondered why Jono hadn’t been back to see him before now, when I explained about the problems we’d had trying to get an appointment he held his head in his hands. He couldn’t apologise enough, but it’s not the fault of the consultants, it’s cutbacks within the HSE.

Anyway the long and the short of it is Jono’s back has started curving again, which we already knew by looking at him. The rods are now curving, which the consultant can’t understand. So he’s arranging for Jono to have a CT scan and physio and will review him again in a couple of months (we hope).

Surgery was mentioned but I’m trying not to think about that at the moment. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. So thanks again for all the good wishes, it means a lot. If anyone knows of a swimming pool in Sligo that Jono can use for about 15 minutes once or twice a week please let me know.