Cancer - You're outta here!!

So… Tuesday 12^th March. That date’s gonna stick. I thought I wouldn’t remember much about it, and I guess I don’t. I can remember the morning prep for the operation, I can remember the ride to the pre-op ward and I can remember moving over to the operating table. And now it’s Wednesday.

At stupid o’clock in the morning I wake up to pins and needles in my fingers and an intense pain at the back of my left heel. What the…?? Seems I’ve got a pressure sore. No biggie, but it’s getting all my attention. So a couple of young bucks in the ICU sort me out and I drift off for awhile. Not for long though. It seems I want to stop breathing and they don’t want me to, so we carry on a running battle with the oxygen tube for the rest of the night. I guess they won.

Now, I’m lying in bed with my head elevated and, even though the Surgeons have been playing with my right eye (which is now covered) I can still see from my left. What I’m looking at is the corner where the wall meets the ceiling, a small window that looks out to the building next door and that’s it. For whatever reason they have me facing into the room rather than out. From my perspective, they’ve got it wrong. I can hear and sense lots of activity behind me but can’t see anything. I’d much rather be looking the other way. I mean, it’s a nonsense really. I’ve just woken up from major surgery and the thing that’s bothering me more and more as the morning wears on is that I can’t see what’s happening behind me.

Get out of bed and stop lying about. It’s late morning and the ICU nurse starts making noises about getting me into a chair. As soon as I hear this I’m trying to get up and the ICU Nurse is trying to slow me down. Anyway, eventually we’re organised and here I am.

 

But wait!!

Bugger – I’m still facing the wrong way.

On the wall in the corner is a Phone/PA system that the nurses use for all sorts of reasons. I hear the receptionist broadcast that there are two visitors for Room 9 – Is it OK if they come in? Apparently, I start yelling at the phone telling her it’s OK and to send them in!

It must have worked ‘cause next thing Denise and Chelle pop in, and everything becomes right with the world.

Did you know there’s an upside to getting an infection in hospital? After a night in a High Dependency Ward with three other snorers, they gave me a single room.

YES!!

PAIN!! – What?? There’s no pain.

Seriously!  There is no pain. There’s a certain amount of discomfort, and the excretion of some very interesting bodily fluids from some unusual places, but honestly – very little to no pain. I guess they’ve got me on the good drugs. I know this won’t be everyone’s experience, but I’ve realised it was the expectation and anticipation of pain that had me worried. Throughout the next three days the worst “pain” I experienced was a Tramadol headache.

   

Who’s this dude??

This was taken on Saturday after Tuesday’s surgery.

So, here’s a question…

How impressed are you with the surgeons, doctors, nurses and all the support staff in Ward 74 at Auckland Hospital?

Want to know how impressed I am?

Watch this space.

 

 

I’m gonna publish this now – but there’s a lot more I want to tell you. Today’s Tuesday – seven days after the surgery.

I’m going home tomorrow.

Do you know, one of the things I’m really looking forward to…

Walking round the garden and feeling the grass under my feet.

Multiculturalism and Kindness walk hand-in-hand