Hope

How on earth do people get up at 6am on a daily basis?  It is a godforsaken hour.  Particularly when sleep didn't arrive until well after 1.30am.  Pre-hospital jitters.

Corin drove me there this morning (was definitely not fully functional) - left in plenty of time, arrived 15 minutes before the Surgical Day Centre opened.  Checked in (haha) by 8am.  Watched the news whilst waiting...then went in to have pre-op checks.  My blood pressure (at 107 / 70 - that's for you Faye!!!) was high for me...probably due to teeth grinding and fist clenching at the SoS for Education who I had just watched on the news...nothing else needs to be said on that one.

Gowned up by 9am.  

Then the strangeness began.  Normally, I walk into an anaesthesiology room which is off the theatre.  I normally am cannulated and the anaesthetic administered and the next I know is waking up, groggy and desperate for a cup of tea, in recovery.

Not today.

I walked into theatre.  I climbed onto the operating table (or bed...whatever), had a nice chat with the consultant, did a lot of looking around, pointing, asking "and what's that for?"  and marvelling at the strangeness of not being unconscious.

The consultant realised that he was going to have some difficulty - he was pressing my abdomen and I jumped..."Sorry, did that hurt?"  ... "No, it tickled!!!!"  And it really did.

Local anaesthetic injection into my belly and a couple of minutes later, he went for it.  Having read up beforehand, I understood the sensation that I felt... pressure...pop...pressure...pop....cold.

Done!

Pressure - large needle through first layer of ab muscles (so I do have some!)...the pop - as the needle entered the 'gap' between the first and second layers.

Repeat...

The cold was the 20ml of steroid and anaesthetic which was injected into the gap between the second and third layers of muscle (again, I marvel, I have abs!!!).  The gap is where the nerve is - the fluid floods the gap and essentially supresses the nerve activity.  Beyond that, I don't know much!

Wheeled to recovery...with further nosiness and "what's that?" type questions (again, I am never usually that conscious in there) and a lovely chat with a superb nurse who lamented the target driven culture that means that paperwork takes more time than care of patients ("Oh, I completely understand THAT!" I said).  Blood pressure check ..."Is it normally low?" "Yeah, why how low is it?" "95/60"..."yeah that's pretty standard for me"...all fine then.

He wheeled me to the ward.  Staff were brilliant ...tea was brought, with biscuits.  Discharged by 11.30am.

I had a large section of my abdomen that remained numb till mid-afternoon, which was the strangest feeling.

Corin took me over to the 'Pool - very late lunch by the Albert Dock - lovely breeze, nice and shady.  It was sensible given that home was a stinking oven!!!  Also, there was no way I was cooking.  

Sensation is back now.  Left side pain (where the nerve block has been done) is not it's usually irritating level, although there is still some there.  I was advised by the consultant and the nurse that it could take up to 2 weeks for the real benefit to be felt.  Interestingly, the right side pain, which is also usually there but not to the same degree, is actually more noticeable this evening.

Now...tonight is the beginning of week 3 of the new meds - I have to jump from 100mg to 300mg tonight.  I seriously think I am going to be comatose tomorrow.

I am feeling optimistic.  First time in a very long time.  I have to monitor carefully now, keep track of pain (or absence of it) for 8-12 weeks ...then I will return to review and make a decision about whether this is something that can be used to manage the pain.  I hope so...I feel like I can see my life beckoning me to come back and join in.

No driving till Thursday.  So, tomorrow, I will be trying to do some work from home and keeping my fingers crossed for a belting thunderstorm tomorrow evening!