NOT a rant...

Martin totally expected me to lambast the NHS after the past few days, but I'm not going to.

Monday was difficult.  I was fasting to have surgery.  My last food had been just shortly before midnight on Sunday night.  My very simple surgery kept being postponed.  I was told it had been cancelled at 9:30pm.  I hadn't even been allowed a drink of water since 6am.  I found it very difficult to be civil to the nursing staff on the Trauma Ward.  Martin took me home, and I had to be back in at 7:00 the next morning.

Tuesday was better.  I still had to wait until about 4pm, but actually got in to have the surgery.  They ended up just doing a local instead of general or spinal, and gave me IV morphine.  Oh my, I LOVE that stuff.  The OR team thought I was HILARIOUS after they gave me the drugs.  They had to hold me on the table while the surgeon removed the glass from my foot.

It took about seven minutes.

I was amazed by how small the piece of glass actually was.  It was just in a really bad place for walking--right on my heel where I place my foot when I'm walking.

Anyway, I slept off the pain killers and was discharged at 7:30pm.  My ride home got there about 9pm.  Home for 10pm, and a good night's sleep.  I'm still in pain because they really sliced me to get the glass out, but the wound feels better than the glass did.  I should be as good as new in a few days.  Just can't walk very well right now, and can't drive at all.  I think I'll spend the next two days slightly drugged and holding the sofa down.

So Monday was pants, but yesterday went very well.  I was frustrated with the NHS, but understood that my surgery was not critical and others needed to go first.  It's just hard to be pleasant when you've been stuck in the hospital with nothing to eat or drink for over 20 hours and then you get bumped.  Nobody's fault--just one of those incredibly irritating things...

I DID get to meet a very fun and feisty lady at the hospital.  She was 74 years old, a widow of five years with a new boyfriend.  She is so in love with him, and her face would light up every time she talked about him.  She broke her knee in two places, then mowed the lawn, cleaned the windows, did the ironing, got a bath, and was forced to the hospital by her boyfriend.  What a trooper!