I never actually described how I felt about my operation and what it was like as I was so ’out of it’, so here goes:

The night before surgery, Neil, Cara and I checked into the Heartswell Lodge next door to the hospital. This is a lovely wooden framed building, overlooking beautiful gardens, for patients and relatives to stay. The three of us went out for delicious meal in a local pub and had a great evening. Marc and Sarah arrived at the lodge late from London due to train delays and we all had an air of excitement about us. It felt more like catching an early morning plane to go on holiday.

Next morning, we left the lodge together in the dark at 6.30 to walk across to the hospital, laughing and joking. I don’t think I was even nervous as finally the day had come to get rid of Deirdre. We all stayed together in the waiting area chatting away. Occasionally I was taken off to be measured for those awful socks and had a final blood test.

The worst part of the early morning was that the anaesthetist suddenly warned us that there was a good chance this operation might be cancelled due to a shortage of beds!!! WHAT!!!! That really threw us. Marc, Sarah and Cara had spent a fortune on train tickets to come down from London and Marc had juggled time off work. Cara’s Andrew was due to arrive later from London and we were all emotionally prepared and even excited to face this massive operation and the difficult weeks ahead.

Then 20 minutes later, suddenly it was back on. It all happened so quickly and I was whisked away to the operating theatre. I remember chatting away happily to the anaesthetist and hospital porters, then the next thing I knew I was waking up full of tubes in the same excited mood that I entered the op. I felt fine! Amazing! Neil, Marc, Cara, Sarah were all there for me, and I could give them the thumbs up and happily reassure them that I FELT FINE!!! Morphine is the most wonderful drug.

I was put in an open HDU (high dependency unit) ward called Crownhill right next to the nurses reception where they could keep an eye on me through my first night. They explained various buttons I could press, but I kept forgetting what was what. One was a call button, another a light, and another was a self administered pain relief button, which apparently I pressed far too often. No wonder I felt great!

Next morning, all the family came back to see me and stayed all day. It felt great to be alive as I drifted in and out of sleep full of tubes and an oxygen mask over my face. I was so glad they’d had a great day in Plymouth the day before, visiting the gin factory and the aquarium etc. Neil is the best tour guide.

The first thing I noticed was how fat I was. I had huge fat white hands and legs which bulged over my surgical socks. Apparently, the minute the surgeon cuts into a patient, the body fills itself with fluid which slowly dissipates the body returns to its normal state. This is a big reason for IV drips. Another thing which surprised me was that I couldn’t feel any pain where the 3 1cm diameter drainage tubes entered my body, but I could most definitely feel the pain of my surgery, and this is the post op pain I’m still feeling.

The surgeon had made a 12” incision in my back behind my right arm, then prized my lower ribs apart to make a 4” gap between them to get into my chest and perform the operation I described a while back. They’d also deflated my right lung to make space for the surgery, and I now have exercises to get that back working 100%.

The days came and went in hospital in a very medical way with nurses tending to me. It was difficult to sleep with other beds full of post op patients, so I drifted in and out of sleep. Because I over did the self administered pain killers once, I then under administered it and felt the true strength of the pain. I never want that feeling ever again!

My immediate family visited me and it was really great to see them, but I asked for no one else. Day by day I became more self aware and I didn’t like the mind dulling effects of the self administered morphine, so soon quit that and relied on regular pain relief like a Diclofenac suppositories and Paracetamol intravenously as I still couldn’t process much by mouth, although I did accept a sip of Oramorph at night to help me sleep.

I barely felt a thing when they removed the drains which were huge tubes reaching far into the empty spaces of my body. I couldn’t belief how long they were when they pulled them out of me. The 1cm diameter holes in my side seemed to heal without stitches. And even when they removed the stitches from my scar, it was painless. The only pain I felt, and still feel, was inside my ribs and the whole area around the operation area.

I’ve already described the rest of my stay in hospital and my home coming. Poor Neil had to listen to all kinds of grunts and groans when I first came home as I tried find a comfortable position to sleep as, initially, it was agony to try to try to turn over. Anyone who has suffered broken ribs will sympathise. Neil offered to move bedrooms, but we both wanted to be with each other, and anyway, Neil sleeps like a log so I could groan away.

But that has passed now and its only 19 days since the op. The pain has reduced to the feeling of a massive bruise as though I’d fallen against something hard, and every morning I wake up with less pain. I barely notice it during the day and I don’t feel a thing when we are walking. My only problem now is eating. Some foods can make me feel really ill and bloated, so we persevere with recipes of pureed food to find which works best.

So far, I’ve had good days and bad days, usually alternatively, so we can’t plan social things yet. But yesterday was a GREAT day, and today is a GREAT day too! Thats 2 in a row! I always know when I wake up how much energy I will have. I’ve been meaning to write this medical update since I’ve been home, and now its out of the way, we can get on with looking forward to good health and more consecutive good days until the bad days become a thing of the past. It wont be long.