Tuesday 26th August

Sorry, back to boring old me now after the wealth of witticisms that has sprinkled the blog posts over the last four days, it could be a real come down.... Many thanks to my husband for sharing my intimate details with the rest of the entire WORLD, not at all in the deal we struck before I was intoxicated with mind numbing drugs.

I would like to set the record straight on a few facts however....

This surgery was quite different from the previous operation, with just the removal of two lymph nodes, seemingly simple but sadly not attainable, as one of them was so wrapped around the renal vein it was inaccessible. The operation itself lasted about two hours, but I spent the best part of nine hours in recovery and then about another 20 hours in HDU.

I had forgotten just how awful being in hospital and having surgery really is, I was grumpy and irritable and miserable, ( no, I'm not normally like that !) I was also in a great deal of pain. The staff at the Royal Marsden are truly wonderful , and while being very efficient, have a great empathy for us the patients. This does help you to recover more quickly I'm sure. In my limited knowledge of hospitals this whole hospital is quite different from the others certainly the main fact being that every single person in here being treated has had or has Cancer... And there were plenty of ladies around me that I feel are worse off than me. Three young ladies in my ward, one of which was pregnant with a two year old at home, had a large tumour removed from her leg. It made me feel very humbled and very grateful for the life I've had so far, and absolutely no right to winge on about my situation.

My tummy is still very swollen, I feel as full as an egg, but at least the pain has subsided. Although part of it was due ( and still is to 'gas') mostly it is full of the lymph fluid from the disrupted node removal. It means that my abdomen ( and it's not large) is full of fluid that has to gradually disperse into my blood stream, well, not actually into it but into the ' third space' the empty bits between cells etc, at least that's the rough explanation I got from one of the lovely nurses. This can only take time, sometimes they fit you with a drain during the op, which works very well, but then there is the difficulty of when to remove it, and the increased risk of infection. In my case it was better to let the body deal with it itself ( apparently according to the surgeon I have a perfect body for surgery, not exactly an accolade I ever hoped to achieve.....)

After a lovely chat with the doctor yesterday MH, ( I hope she does come and do a bit of work in Jersey, she's lovely!) we came to the decision that while my stomach is so distended the pressure in the flight could make it far worse, so better to wait another 24 hours or so, although I may actually be discharged today I can't fly until tomorrow ( thank goodness for the flat) .

Meanwhile back at the ranch..... The children ( and extended children !) have been amazing, fortunately Tom was able to take two days off last week and work from home, but he also did many chores, including dog walking, cooking and cleaning, Dan seems to have spent the best part of the last five days at sea, and so was excused from duties, but Jack and Bex have also done their fair share, including gardening, grass cutting, etc. I was sent a lovely photo of them eating supper last night that Tom had cooked, ( they did say don't bother coming home, far more fun without me- I think it was a joke ....) :-)

I had forgotten about the surgical stockings - four weeks of wear, tricky when sea swimming....... I had also forgotten about the stinging injection ( tinzaparin) that has to be administered every day for a month. Essential to prevent blood clotting but painful all the same, ( I don't know how you coped MR injecting yourself every day, but then you're a man)

As for the hilarity with my brother and sister in law yesterday , Colombo ( with the hat) it will take some explaining, and did no favours to my tender disposition. Still in my single room fortunately, I just had the space to entertain my 'guests' , who had bought their own refreshments including a bottle of water. DN when emphasising a point gesticulated with her arm while holding the bottle ( that had no lid ) and poured most of it over my brothers arm and down his leg. This took a lot of tissues and a bit of floor mopping to clear up. Goodness know what the rest of the ward made of the laughter - I then decided we were safer to move to the small day room down the corridor. So my brother attempted to gather up his coat, brolly, hat etc for the move whilst his wife was stood at the sink working out how the tap and soap dispenser worked. My brother bent over, my sister in law squirted the liquid soap which was angled away from the sink and shot straight down the back of his trousers.........I was incapacitated with laughter watching this happen from my chair, these three adults stumbling about in each other's way, Donnas apologetic with yet more more tissue wiping, Pete with that resigned air of the inevitable, and Steve trying hard not to get involved.

Lastly, a very big HUGE thank you to all of you out there that are wishing me a very speedy recovery, although I can't always reply to each person, please know that it is appreciated.





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