[rosedee]

Hi Louise,

There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't phone and leave a message for your surgeon with his secretary expressing your concerns. He can then either speak to you directly (no reason why that can't happen over here), arrange for you to talk/see a more junior doctor who would be able to advise, or get his secretary to pass another message to you. If you feel it would be helpful, you could always ask his secretary if you could fax/email a letter with your concerns to him. Although it often seems (and sometimes is) the case that it's not possible to access our consultants on NHS in between appts., it is always open to you to try one or more of the above.

Alternatively, if your GP is good/supportive you could ask him/her for guidance. Have you talked to your physio about your concerns? Again, s/he should be able to offer advice and you could speak on the phone if you don't have an appt. due. Your physio should certainly be able to help you work out what is doing too much and what you need to do to facilitate your recovery.

Remember, its still very early days in your recovery and all sorts of pains come and go during the process. I found it hard knowing what were the normal pains of post surgery recovery and what were not - I think this is probably inevitable. But it is important to get the information you need to enable you to not be too anxious about things unnecessarily.

Hope you manage to speak with someone soon

rosedee