Surgery Day

After a night of virtually no sleep – 4 bedded bay with W, empty bed and an elderly lady who slept all day and became a creature of the night the minute the lights went out – up at 6 to shower and put on anti-embolitic stockings. An interesting look, as the gown neck was so big it was off my shoulders and the stockings were much longer than my legs.

Mr Small came to see me and outlined the many ways I could die from the procedure. Informed consent is essential, but terrifying. Then the anaesthetist came and basically did the same thing. By this time, I was terrified.

At 8:30am the porters came to collect me for theatre. I had to go down on my bed so I could come back on it later. This was always an indicator of ’significant’ surgery back in my day. The porters were kind and jokey, making comments about how nervous I looked.

In theatre, I transferred to a trolley and was wheeled into anaesthetics. The anaesthetist put an intravenous cannula in my right hand, I had a BP cuff and a set of ECG leads attached and then oxygen through a mask, held firmly on my face. He said he was giving me something for pain, sickness and then said he was giving me the induction agent. I felt a metallic taste in my mouth and then went out.




I woke up in recovery and saw 11:30 on the clock. My only memories are feeling nauseous but in no pain.

At 12:15 I was back on the ward and had a brief conversation with W. Must have dozed a while, but was able to ring J and j on my mobile by 12:30 and tell them I was still alive.

Slept for a while, then the wonderful Gail (Nursing assistant) helped me get up to go to the loo and change out of my gown into my pyjamas. Started to feel human again.

Had IV fluids and an oxygen mask on, as well as flotron wraps around my legs, which inflated and deflated to minimise the risks of a DVT.

J and j visited at 2pm and I was able to sit up and have a walk around the ward. Felt unbelievably fit. Dozed a bit afterwards. Used a mouthcare pack with little pink sponge lollies to wet my mouth, which was horrendously dry from the oxygen. Later, graduated to sips of water.