I wish you a speedy recovery Ed, get well soon.
If it's not too late, and if it does apply in UK, you may find the following re hospital paperwork useful:
Back in 2002 I had a back op. Last year I had another, and naturally enough, the surgeon for the 2014 op wanted the paperwork from the 2002 op before starting out on me this time. Even though it was the same hospital in each case, we found out that all my 2002 paperwork had gone missing (probably destroyed, being more than 10 years old).
So this time, and very much on a just in case basis, I insisted on getting a copy of EVERY piece of paper in my own hands. Here (Switzerland) it is your right as you are the patient (I guess it's the same in UK?), but even so, and probably because they're Swiss medics, they often came over a bit stuffy when I asked often said stuff like "Don't worry, we'll send the stuff to your Dr/your GP/the Rehab place/whatever". I even had to push more than once in a couple of cases. Never mind, I very tactfully and politely insisted that I get a copy of everything myself (as above, it's my right) and now I'm coming to the end of the whole process I now have a complete folder with copies of everything, stored in a safe place.
The medics also pointed out that, unlike my 2002 op where everything was hard copies, these days it's all stored electronically, so "It'll all still be here in 100 years time". To which I, still politely, replied "Or accidentally deleted in about 2 nanoseconds".
Seriously, I find the medical profession everywhere does tend to treat all patients as if they're mental defectives (OK, probably with more than a little justification in my case!), so if it's not to late, and if you have the energy and mobility, it could be well worth your while chasing up all your papers and making up your own file.
FWIW and HTH.
Krgds
AES
