Harriet's hips

Just got back from Harriet's appointment at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. It went well - yes, she will need plaster, but we've had the best part of a month to come to terms with that. The good news is that - if the procedure is successful (and they can verify that within two weeks of the plaster going on) - she'll only need to be in plaster for 10 weeks. Then she's transferred into a harness for a minimum of three months - at first she'll need to be in it for 22 hours a day, which means she'll be able to have baths and go swimming, but by six weeks she'll only be wearing it at night, so - fingers crossed - she could be back to "normal" within 16 weeks of the procedure being done, assuming it's successful of course. If not, it'll be a bout of open surgery, but we're trying not to think about that yet (the closed procedure she's having has a success rate of 80-85%).

The procedure itself will hopefully take place in December - we should have confirmation of this within the next week or two. It means - depending on how we feel - we may yet be up to visiting the West Country at the beginning of next month.