Starting life at the clinic

A day and a half at the clinic and I am beginning to find my feet (one slightly more comfortable than the other just now) and to know how things work.  The full title is the Clinique de Rééducation et de Réadapation Fonctionnelle.  The website is here in case you want so see the official version.  Someone said rééducation sounded rather communist, but on reflection it seems an accurate description.  The joint itself has been replaced, but all the muscles and tendons around are in a sorry state either because of long-term deterioration or the trauma of the operation itself.  So my 3 weeks or even more here will be well-spent while they relearn their proper roles.

As you may imagine the whole place revolves round physiotherapy and its associated treatments.  While the nursing is attentive and skilled, especially in managing pain (not always possible or 100%), the key activities are steadily building up exercise and flexibility.  You have the sense all the time that everything else is secondary to that, even food, rest and relaxation.  The image I'll keep is the first afternoon yesterday in the gym, with more than a dozen therapists working with 50+ people all round a gym, with tables to lie on and all sorts of other equipment, carefully timed and monitored.

My first session was an individual one who tested the bend and stretch of my leg to the point of unbearable discomfort.  This will happen every day for the time being.  Then there are various other exercises, including a bending one with cords and pulleys which you do yourself in a kind of steel cage like an overgrown rabbit hutch, simply a convenient way of attaching the ropes and pulleys - they call it 'the meccano' - some electrical restimulation of muscles with electrodes, like being tied to an electric fence - and, often and always, ice packs.  At the end of a session you walk across the area with your stick or crutches to see, as they say in Derbyshire, how you're going on.  

I'll have 3½  hours a day of concentrated work like this on weekdays, which does not seem much but certainly leaves you tired, and, later, therapy in the swimming pool too.  The physios are all very friendly and exacting at the same time - the obvious advantage over doing this at home with an instruction sheet is that you get pushed the extra 10% each time, and at the same time it is all done safely.  I got the woman who checked me over on Saturday morning to show me exercises I could do on Sunday - not much happens at the weekend, and a lot of people go home when they can (after 2 weekends.  The whole stay for me is supposed to be at least 3 weeks, but some stay much longer - they aim to send you out fully functional.

The view from my 3rd floor room

Practically the building is relatively modern (though showing its age and not always fitted to the highest standards) with 73 beds plus 15 places as a day centre (the latter mainly for sports injuries).  Most rooms are twin shared like the 3rd floor one I'm in at the moment, though I am on a waiting list for a single room which costs a bit more but means I can indulge my insomnia by turning the light on in the night.  Insomnia is even more common for me just now because of the pain having to lie flat - after 5 years of being gradually more bent , the straightening of the new leg is a priority and so the poor tendons and muscles particularly behind the knee have to be more or less told to rediscover their potential.  Re-education indeed.  

On top of that the knee is still a bit swollen, being actively tackled not just through exercise but lots of ice (never stays where it's put) and a stocking of the kind you wear on long-haul flights.  Because of the swelling the skin pulls when I bend the knee, so I have aches all round the front of the knee too - generally, I just have leg-ache even when there are no sharper pains.  French is an unhelpful language when it comes to pain - the word ache is very descriptive in English, distinct from pain, but in French there is the singe term douleur or the very general 'ça me fait mal' which could mean a lot of things.


The interior of the place is spacious and light, very well adapted for people with limited mobility.  But the surroundings are surprising.  It's on higher ground near a little village north of Montpellier, with views of the garrigue and pylons all around, quite attractive in sunny weather though exposed to the prevailing winds.  But the grounds are rough and have a neglected and unfinished look.  There are some flat areas outside near the building, but steep, stony paths linking them, and even the path from the car parks to the main entrance climbs very steeply to start with and your wheelchair could well run away if you tried to go down.  There is a kerb at the bottom.  In short, the message is more or less 'stay inside' even if you are on crutches - there are some very bumpy areas you need to cross no matter where you try to go.  I don't think this kind of poor disabled access would be acceptable in a UK facility catering exclusively for disabled people.

The big disappointment is the food.  It isn't bad, but at least one friend enthused about it and it certainly does not merit that now - perhaps it has gone downhill since she was in.  Certainly my Danish friends , just back from seeing 89 yr old mum in an 8000 bed hospital in Denmark, witnessed much better standards, with half a dozen freshly cooked choices available at choice an hour before the meal. Here you do have a choice, but only on weekdays when, if you don't fancy the main dish you can opt for an unspecified alternative (how do I know if I'll like that?).  It is served at your table by helpful staff, but it is not always piping hot - the inelegant hospital plastic trays and microwave were more certain to provide a hot meal.  And all this in the land of gastronomy.  As for the instant coffee... well, thank goodness you can get ground from a machine, when it works!  As you can see, the dining space though is light and airy. 


Enough for now - I'll write later in the week about my progress and the process of re-education.

One of the social spaces - empty on a Saturday.  There are usually a lot of people milling around