Exploratory Surgery
On Wednesday 14 January 2009 I was booked in by the ENT specialist to have some exploratory surgery to try to ascertain where the primary site was. I had to be at the St Andrews Private hospital by 0630 so I could be prepped. On arrival I was confronted by one of the Hospital volunteers, who I surmised used to run the place (probably still does) before she was made to retire. After filling out all the relevant consents I was lead up to a waiting room by another volunteer to wait for the next phase.
After a short wait I was lead away to a cubicle to change into the hospital gown and dressing gown, then weighed, had my height taken and asked the usual questions about medical history. The nurse then escorted me to another waiting room that would be my home for the next few hours. The anaesthetist came and collected me and took me back to the examination room, asked me the same set of medical questions at about 0830. The anaesthetist told me that I was due go into surgery about 1030 after a string of tonsillectomies, he the sent me back to the waiting room.
At about 1100 the ward orderly called my name and I was placed on the trolley for the trip down to the operating theatre. The ENT specialist came out to have a talk to me before surgery and gave me the good news that the CT scan from Monday showed that I had nothing from the neck down, to which I most right quipped probably got nothing upstairs either. I remember very little of the surgery (which is good) and awoke in the recovery ward at about 1200 with a sore throat and a slight headache. After about an hour there I was moved into the Day Surgery ward where I spent an hour before being allowed to dress and sit in a reclining chair to have a cup of coffee, a small soft drink and some sandwiches which were very welcome given that by now it was about 2.30 and I had been fasting since the night before.
H was called by the hospital to come and collect me and I was wheeled down to the carpark to await collection (for those old enough to remember it was like a scene from Death Race 2000).
At this point I would like to say from first meeting the ENT up to now he has always wanted to include H in the discussions. Straight after he finished with me on the operating table he was on the phone to H to let her know what was going on, what he had done during the operation and checking on her wellbeing.
When I went into St Andrews for my RND the ENT Specialist also kept H well informed (more on this later)