How do you feel about having this surgery? asked the surgeon.
The words abject and terror came to mind but I recognised that fact that despite all my nice low fat diet food, my gallbaldder was determined to give me grief and it was at last time to part company. So Saturday about 4pm they wheeled me down.
Procedure
The costume wasn’t becoming;
turquoise and blue dolly-mixture
gown – loose ties, open at the back.
But I wore it well.
I was glad they offered no mirror.
A furtive feel beneath crisp folds
told me my hands were cold.
I felt terror.
My feet were flight-sock warm,
constricted like the cuff of the machine
or the tight furled fronds of a yet unopened fern.
I breezed a joke or two.
Panicking, I emerged
out of mist and half
remembered fears. I heard clearly
my name. The reassurance of a cup;
that first blessed sip.
©2014 Oonah V Joslin
I had a very bruised arm and hand when I awoke. Ms Robinson, my surgeon told me it took 17 attempts to get a canualr into a vein. They kept collapsing. I AM my mother's daughter!!!
I am glad they put me under quickly as soon as they realised what was going on. I only felt the first try.
a week on
I am beginning to feel much better now and I will continue to eat low fat because otherwise not having a gall bladder there's nowhere to store it. The consequences can be -- unpleasant. But at least now I can have a wee treat now and then and along the way I have learned to cook in quite a different way and I have lost two stone in the process.
Thank you to the nurses, cleaners, surgical and assessment teams at Wansbeck Hospital, whose endless patience and tremendous skills helped me and so many others on a daily basis.
