Round 1

ow ow ow ow ow
that hurt!

Caz and i arrived Monday 8am at the ward. I was swept off to a room where there was a bed for me! Hold on! No-one had mentioned a bed! Just sat on the bed when the doctors morning round came in.

Who's this? What's he doing here? What biopsy?
Hey! You told me to come in!

I've learnt that was the doctor remonstrating with his charges as to why there were no notes there for him. Its then i'm told that i'm in overnight. First overnight stay in hospital since the age of 7. So they take more blood, this time to check the bloods clotting ability and i sit and wait, fasting till 2pm.

They wheel me down on the bed and i go to the ultrasound room. the dr there is clear, concise and puts me at ease. Imagine two bits of sponge cake with jam in the middle. The top layer gets the local anesthetic but the liver has a wall - the jam - and this is not anesthetised. So the biopsy probe goes through the top layer and snatches a bit from the bottom section. OW! Then there is a second one. The pain extends to the shoulder as if its been twisted too long. The feeling of that liver cut took me back to a shot i got commonly known as a liver punch. It shakes the foundations of your core. A cut or a thump does not compare to this on the Richter scale.

I spend the next four hours lying still on the bed. I don't move as it hurts. After four hours i can eat my meal - a delightful dish i don't honestly want to recall and i sit up more on the bed, get the itouch out and watch some videos on it. Caz comes to visit and soon leaves to go and lock up the school. I'm in a room with two elderly men in it. One is quiet, doesn't say much and goes to sleep quickly. The other is always talking. He started the day off positively but ended up depressed. He gets attention until 11 and then is sick through the night. Its a lesson for when the recovery starts as i have to be prepared not to be brought down by others.

Morning has brought snow. I ravish two bits of toast that is my breakfast and am told i can go home at lunchtime. About 11am the nurse comes in and lets me loose and within 30 minutes im being picked in the car by Caz. I get home to the short wagging tail of Kali and after a cup of tea and some more toast i go for a sleep.

So now i wait for the surgeon to call me again and tell me when i'm due in or what alternative route they may have. I'm in limbo not knowing that question everyone asks me - when?

Right now i need to heal from the biopsy