The Operation

I was admitted to The QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City on 3rd March 2010.

I arrived at the hospital at 9.30am as requested only to find out my surgery wasn't scheduled until 2.30pm so I had a long wait in store.

My last meal was a bowl of cereal at 6.50am and I spent the morning fighting the urge to eat a chocolate biscuit out of my bag (as is habit if my belly grumbles and there is a pack to hand!)

At about 1pm Jay went home to relieve Grandad of Amber and I set out to finish my book before I was called for surgery (I managed it just!)

The lady in surgery before me over ran causing me to be "kicked out" of the EAU (in the nicest possible way) as it was the end of their shift. So I was taken to the ward I was to be on after my op.

Lovely I thought, I unpacked everything so it was all easily accessible to me when I was stuck in bed. Only to be told 10 minutes later that actually they'd had to move me onto another ward and I'd need to repack!

I then got taken over to theatre with all my bags etc and found it so much less stressful than I imagined as instead of being wheeled in on a bed I was able to walk into the pre-op room and get myself onto the operating bed. It was all a bit surreal to be honest.

I don't remember much except what felt like a 10 inch needle being pushed into my vein (I later discovered this was actually a very tiny needle and the anasthetic burns the vein as it is administered which is why it felt like a really long needle).

I woke up after the operation with a terrible case of the shivers and a very sore lip. I think the first words I said was "why does my lip hurt". It appears that when they had put the tube in my mouth to enable me to breathe they had trapped my poor little lip under the tube and it had been stuck there for the 2h 30 operation. It then increased in size for the next 10 minutes and made me look like I'd been punched in the face (great).
I should say at this time that apart from my lip I felt no pain whatsoever!