revision of right knee January 2022

Going Back to Lithuania 2022

Background

Before having my left knee operation carried out by Nordorthopaedics I had already been waiting since the beginning of 2016 to have revision surgery on the failed partial replacement right knee carried out in 2015 at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor. 

What with the chaos around extended waiting times within the North Wales area for elective surgery and then the issues around Covid no offer of resolving the worn, bone to bone contact, in my right knee has ever been recived. I have therefore decided to book another appointment at Nordorthopaedics to have the partial replaced with a full knee. 

The pain is quite peculiar as I get shooting pains when I lift the knee from a standing position. There is also a feeling of swelling and stiffness which is noticable all the time. 

Comparison of X-Rays right to left 2018-2022

Contacting Nordorthopaedics

Due to the increasing pain and swelling in the right knee now stopping me walking for longer than around 20 to 30 minutes I decided to contact the clinic to register for surgery. Rūta, customer service representative, sent an email on 15th November 2021 in response to my initial enquiry.  With a number of email communications between mid November and the 29th December I received confirmation of the date for the surgery to take place on  the 24th January.

Getting X-Rays

The next challenge was getting a more recent X-Ray. this turned out to be much easier than back in 2018 and through Access to health records I was able to download the new X-Rays and forward them by email to Rūta. 

Booking flights

With the after effects of the pandemic on air travel Catharine, my wife, and I spent reseaching flights. The direct flights from Liverpool to Kaunas or Vilnius seemed to have been removed from the schedules for the dates at the end of January. I had noted some posts and comments from the Facebook Group on the problem with flight bookings so I was not surprised. We managed to get a flight from Liverpool via Dublin to Kaunas booked for the 21st January which gave me the necessary 3 days prior to the operation in Kaunas. With assistance from Rūta I got confirmation of a booking at the Kaunas Hotel from the evening of 21st January to the morning of 24th. 

As with many I discovered that Travel Insurance is difficult to get for over 65 year olds and I decided not to take out any of the offers at the time. 

We then booked the return flight for the 7th February as a direct flight from Kaunas to Liverpool. 

Cancelled flights

Two days later I got an email to say that the flight from Kaunas had been cancelled and had to re-book, Ryan Air telephone agents were not at a ll helpful and we had to deal with this ourselves on the website. We ended up with a flight from Vilnius to Liverpool and we were able to change this without any nadditional charges. Having confirmed the booking and 'checked in' I contacted Rūta to get her to extend our stay at UPA.

The following day we received another email to say that flight had also been cancelled and the next available flight was the 10th February with the same itinnery. So once again I had to check in and then advise Rūta of the changes. 

Like many of those travelling to Lithuania aged over 65 finding travel insurance is a nightmare. As it is pretty impossible to get cover if you are travelling for medical appointments we didn't take out insurance and so the additional days, due to the cancelled flights, are now costing us extra, but this means a longer stay in the superb facility at UPA. 

Other preparations

2022-01-15 

With all the pain and my recent spinal decompression operation back in October last year I have not been very diligent in dealing with all the things I should have got in 'dying order' as I had intended during last year. As normal routine Catharine and I take our dog, Jazz, out for an early morning and a late afternoon walk; in addition today we have been clearing out items stored on the mezzanine floor and wading through lots of old papers ready to recycle. With this and the dog walks my knee has swollen more than I have seen for some time: 

Swollen knee 2022-01-15

I plan to prepare my luggage  tomorrow so that I am confident that it will all fit in the bag size allowance with Ryan Air flights. 

Before I leave on next Friday (21st Jan) I am planning to get Flair IV my yacht lifted out but as Catharine and I have been isolating since the 11th January I will need to be very careful about close contact. 

2022-01-16

I have now packed my bag and I am happy that I have considered all the aspects I can think of. However the last time I was in Lithuania it was July and warm, looking at the weather forecasts it is looking like -3°C, so I have packed some more undergarments!

2022-01-19

Yesterday Catharine and I went to Pwllheli to get Flair IV lifted out for the period up to March 21st. 

Now doing Final checks on everything and planning to set off after lunch.