Haha. Big head there Charlotte.
You might have noticed I’ve been quieter on the blog the last week or so, and if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve just had surgery to remove a misbehaving gallbladder. Not major surgery: a keyhole day procedure, but still big enough to be scary. I spent a lot of time panicking about it because I have hospital issues.
The actual gallbladderectomy went totally to plan. The staff read my notes (first time ever) and recognised how panicked I was so they bumped me up to first on the list (safest not to have me freaking out and scaring the other patients on the the ward). When I came back to the ward, the TV played suitably inappropriate interviews with people who nearly died during gallbladder surgery and adverts for medical negligence firms. The staff looked after me wonderfully and sent me home as planned.
Later that night, I wound up in A&E with a wound that hadn’t stopped bleeding. Sat in my delightfully mismatched pjs because I was too tired and sore to get dressed. It turns out, having had surgery that same day doesn’t get you seen any quicker. The staff were constantly busy, but the hospital was rammed. I was fuming sat there, surrounded by people complaining of things like a cough they’d had for a week or a headache that wouldn’t go away (they’d refused painkillers) which really aren’t what A&E is there for, whilst other people who really needed to be there were having to wait several hours to be seen.
Five hours later, a very efficient (and alarmingly lively for that hour) doctor was assessing my wound, demanding very specific (and seemingly hard to find) equipment and cauterising (ouch) then stitching (ouch ouch) the badly behaved incision. By the time I got home, I’d been awake for 19 of the previous 24 hours; and 2 of those hours I was asleep were under general anaesthetic.
I slept the entire next day.
I’m still pretty wiped out. I underestimated how sore and exhausting it would be. I expected a lot of resting but I thought I’d be reading more, and watching more of Angel (which my friends bought me to help me through recovery). That’s not how it’s going. I’ve basically reverted to being a baby: I eat and sleep. Occasionally I read a few pages of my book or watch something on TV and then sleep some more. Nana naps are my life now.
I have been told it should improve in a week or so and I should be back to normal in two weeks. That remains to be seen. In the meantime, if I’m quiet around here a little longer, I’m probably napping.
Charlotte, Somewhere 
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