An Optional Operation

I left off in my last blog with a teaser implying that I would go for an “optional” operation soon. I have since received quite a few inquiries asking for more details and also many get-well messages from well wishers to whom I am very grateful. Let me quickly go through the whole thing, for the record.

My left leg hasn’t been working too well for some time; and I had given accounts in my blogs before on what I had been through with government protocols and assistance from my friend chiropractor and sport physiotherapist. The pain and discomfort came and went, but I have ben sleeping well and never had to take pain killers that I had been prescribed. A month ago, I met a Rotarian at CCC who told me that he had taken treatment from a fellow Rotarian who is an orthopedic surgeon and had had good results without any intrusive surgeries. Since the surgeon is a good friend, I messaged him to inquire whether he had time to see me. He texted back even before I had time to put off the phone and gave me an appointment there and then, which was 22nd August. Su accompanied me for the visit, and to cut the long story short, and with the aid of the x-ray plates taken at QEH, my friend doctor diagnosed that the deterioration in the left knee joint was such that a replacement was called for now or as soon as a room could be booked in a hospital, adding that it would normally take at least a month for such non-emergency bookings. However, he also advised in the same breath that the replacement was not a must, and hence optional, depending on my requirements and expectation on my future activities in life. He asked me to take time to think over the matter, returning to him for any questions as often as necessary. His nurse then briefed us on other admission details and protocols.

We went away with the thought that we had at least a month to ponder over the matter, but at 4 pm on that same day, the clinic’s nurse message me with the news that my friend doctor had managed to locate a slot for the operation on 2 September, which was just over ten days, and asked me to respond as soon as I could. I was taken aback slightly and asked my friend whether I could have at least another week to chew over the issue. He gladly agreed, but on that same night, just before midnight and having just finished an operation, he texted me with an alternative date of 24 September. My doctor friend was certainly hard working. I found the message on my phone the next morning and sought to have a quiet lunch with him a few days later, which we did and during which I re-confirmed my wish to go ahead with this “optional” operation.

We still had nearly a month before the actual operation and many things could happen in between. We met friends who offered advices of all sorts, including my godson whose mother-in-law had gone through knee replacement and was thus in a perfect situation to offer me practical assistance and advice. We decided to visit them and at the same time revised the mahjong lessons for Su, the last one having taken place more than six months ago.

I haven’t yet mention Juni who is in her early 80s and was a classmate of our Latin Dance Class before Covid. She had her operation on both knees shortly after I had my first consultation with my bone doctor. She was pretty upbeat and happy about having gone ahead with the process. Indeed, she thought that she had been waiting longer than necessary and was glad that she had managed to have it done through the government processes. I had advice from others, including my physiotherapist who thought otherwise, but I would not dwell on them here.

Let me turn to another totally different issue at this point: the presidential debate a few days ago. But first let me go back to Kishore Mahbubani whom I mentioned in my last blog. A friend forwarded me a video of an interview in which he gave a blunt dressing down to a journalist who asked him the following question, “How do you reconcile the fact that to make it work for China it seems to be based on a high level of repression, environmental destruction, censorship, a certain ideological stubbornness (etc., etc.)” Mahbubani reduced the journalist to nothingness after thanking him for the question, which he said, captured very well the Anglo-Saxon media’s perception of China and which is a distorted perspective of reality. He went on to use facts, blow by blow, to illustrate his point. I later found out that it was a dated interview from a leading news magazine “Der Spiegel” dated November 2021. I mentioned him because he said in a more recent interview that the US had to be a deeply troubled society to consider electing a character such as Trump to be the next President. What he said notwithstanding, he said Trump would likely win the next election when pressed for an answer by a journalist. Trump is certainly a character of his own class, as described by a British writer Nate White who was reported as having written the following, “Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So, for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh.  And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.  Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.” I did spend time watching the debate and had a good laugh, by skipping a breakfast meeting with a brother.  I don’t know what to say afterwards. In the meantime, I did my routines in the pool to strengthen my leg muscles, in preparation for my “optional” operation.