Out the other side!

Hello bloggers!

Well now, i’m out the other side of surgery and its great to be here.

6.45 0n Monday saw me waiting nervously in mid heels a black pencil skirk and a mauve knitted top for the taxi driver to take me the 13km to the private unit on an imdutrial estate in one of Ghent’s suburbs where the op was to be performed. I was a bit early so had to sit in a corridor while preparations were made,  Then I was shown to a private room and left to change into surgical dress, compression stockings and a dressing gown.  Soon the nurse can to get me for surgery and once in the operating theatre everything was  blur of activity, saying hello to Dr Bart and his colleagues, getting positioned on the operating table and finally the sharp scratch in my left hand and pain in my left arm which presaged to anaesthetic and  oblivion for the next 12 hours.

Dr Bart tells me that is his longest surgery to date – 10 hours – but i think the preparation and recovery had me out for a bit longer .

The night that followed was pretty unpleasant.  Highlight (lowlights?) included vomiting up the  stomach of blood which had accumulated from the nose surgery, and the first sight of myself as a football.

I don’t recall sleeping at all.

By Tuesday morning I was being cleaned up for discharge. My hair was absolutely matted with blood from the cranial surgery and took several goes to get half decent by which time the hospital bathroom was swimming.

But a problem  them occurred with my discharge.  Probably as a result of the length of the surgery I was pretty shaky on my feet.  It took a while to get to the point where Br Bart (who told me he had slept  tor ten hours after the surgery - lucky him!) and the nurse were prepared to let me take a taxi back to Ghent.

Here the lovely guest house owner, Karien, was waiting to help me back into my apartment and make me comfortable with the cooled gel packs she had waiting.

Tuesday afternoon and evening I took pretty easily, with a little light reading and an episode of ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ from BBC i-player.

I did get a few hours sleep last night, assisted by the sleeping prescribed by Dr Bart.

Wednesday morning finds me still very swollen – more uncomfortable than in pain, and I breakfasted on watered down orange juice and a few sips of cream of mushroom soup.  I am thinking of rewarding myself for getting this blog posted by a weak half cup of lukewarm coffee through a straw.  Such things are pleasures made of.

Even in my football-shaped state, I can see signs of what the surgery was intended to achieve, so I am encouraged that, in time, I might be more ‘Footballer’s wife’  than ‘Football’

I’ll keep you posted....

Moira