It's been a l..o..n..g day. I only got home half an hour ago.
I left the house at 6:30am and arrived at Birmingham New Street at 8:45am. Plenty of time for both a MaccyD brekkie AND a Costa Vanilla Latte. I arrived at the hospital at 10:15am for my 10:30 appointment. The clinic was running late so I wasn't called through until 11:15am.
First I had height (168 cm), weight (58.5 kg), blood pressure (104 / 71), Sats (94) and heart rate (83) checked. Then I had an ECG, swabs of groin, nose and inside of mouth done and several vials of blood drawn.
I was then passed over to the anaesthetist who was very nice. We discussed my general health, medications, etc. He then explained how he would put me to sleep, the various tubes etc. that would be inserted while I was under and discussed my pain relief options (epidural or morphine pump). He strongly recommended the epidural so I've agreed to that.
I went back to the waiting room and had about a half an hour wait to see the Clinical Nurse Specialist. She took a detailed medical history and then we got down to the nitty gritty.
The operation itself will take 4 - 6 hours. I will go from theatre to recovery and then to the Critical Care Unit (ICU in my world) for at least one and possibly two nights before being transferred back to the ward. If they are able to do the procedure laprascopically I may only be in hospital for 5 - 7 days. If they have to open me up it will be 7 - 10 days. I'll come back to what happens after discharge.
I will look like a hedgehog once all the following are inserted into me:
While I'm still awake - a cannula in the back of my hand so the anaesthetist can inject go to sleep juice;
While I'm under - line for fluid administration; line into my jugular vein with about 4 ports for blood transfusion if required, rapid administration of drugs and who knows what else; NG tube to empty my stomach so I don't puke into my lungs; catheter; epidural line; drain; possibly an NG tube for feeds; and I'll be on oxygen. I will slowly lose those over several days post-op.
Now then, post discharge. The nurse was absolutely adamant that I MUST have someone with me 24/7 for preferably 2 weeks after discharge. She is sending a referral to the Occupational Therapy team asking them to find out if I'm eligible (as I'm out of area) for a place in a recuprative facility in Harborne (still Birmingham for those who don't know the city). I'm going to ring my local hospice tomorrow to see if they have recuprative places and, if not, do they know anywhere local that does.
There is no wifi at all in the hospital. My ward is on the 7th (top) floor of the hospital and I'm told the mobile phone reception is excellent up there. (As are the views if I get put in one of the side-rooms.) I've done something I swore blind I would never, ever do. I've acquired a cheapish smart phone handset (already have a SIM card) with 4G. I may be able to do my own updates starting a few days post-op.
Lunch at Five Guys and then a very slow train ride home.
I'm shattered.