The Wait Begins

If you follow me on Facebook and Twitter you’ll know that we are just back from a couple of days in Newcastle which I’ll tell you about later. When we arrived back in Dublin we had to head to Tallaght as Jono had a hospital appointment.

They always seem to call everyone in at the same time and the consultant doesn’t arrive until later so we knew there would be a wait. We didn’t expect a three-hour wait though and as you can see from the photo above the seats they aren’t the most comfortable, particularly for anyone with a spinal problem.

Jono was really suffering with pain and was very distressed, thankfully a kind nurse put him in a room on a trolley so he was able to lie down. She also gave him tea and a sandwich, I wish I’d got her name so I could thank her.

When Jono finally got seen it was 5.30pm and he was only seen because two other patients let him go ahead of them. The consultant looked at the scan that Jono had done in February  and could see that the curve above the spinal fusion (metal rods) had got worse. So he suggests taking out the top part of the metal and extending the rods up into Jono’s neck. As there is a huge waiting list for spinal surgery in Ireland we have no idea when this will be done. In the meantime they are going to send Jono for pain relief injections to see if they will help. We finally got out of the hospital at 6pm and were so lucky to make the last train home to Sligo.

Jono is just relieved that something is going to be done as he couldn’t carry on the way he was. He’s one of the bravest people I know.