One Tumour Down!

So good news about the surgery - Dr Ooi removed the tonsil/tumour - what a legend.

The surgery all went pretty well from my end - of course being unconscious for all of it, I'm not the most reliable source.  But my experience of it was good.

Alison and I entered the 3.5 star motel foyer that is the reception area of Flinders Private Hospital.  We paid up for my day stay and didn't wait long before being ushered upstairs to the next level waiting room.  I had had a fair feed at about 10pm so the fasting wasn't causing me much grief.  After about an hour there, we were taken to my private room.

We had a great view down onto the shared vehicle and pedestrian entrance area.  Whoa! Talk about chaos.

I went through all the usual checks, reciting my name, rank and serial number numerous times, before finally saying goodbye to Alison and leaving my room for the theatre.  I wasn't feeling too nervous, I just wanted Dr Ooi to get this thing out of my throat.  I was wheeled into the green room of the operating theatre.  It was a small room, I was wrapped up in a pre-warmed blanked and there was a little stereo cranking out all the hits from the 80 and 90's.  I lay there undisturbed for about four songs, some Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson and Alanis Morrisette.  Then Dr Ooi came to have a chat.  It was really good to talk to him.  He assured me that he was still keen to remove the tonsil if possible.  We had a bit of a chat about the issues with HPV, in particular the cohort of boys who have gone through without vaccination.  He wished me well and turned my tunes back up before leaving alone once more in my little change room.

A Beatles song came on (I can't recall which one), and I thought 'perfect, let me go in to surgery with this as entrance song'.  But that ended before I was driven in...no worries though, I was taken into theatre with Sting, Andy and Stewy cheering me on.  A good omen!

I had a bit of banter with the theatre staff, starting a pretty robust conversation about 'Bachelor in Paradise' - Dr Ooi was having no input...hmm?

I said goodbye to all and the anaesthetist dialled up the happy juice.

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I was getting a bit sick of waiting go into the theatre.  People were coming and going asking me questions and fussing around me.  I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be, let's get this thing going.  The haziness and incomprehensible talk subsided, and a nurse asked me if my throat hurt.  Yes.  Yes it did as a matter of fact.
'Have I had the surgery?'
'Yes, you're in recovery'
The penny dropped.
I felt warm and loving.  The world was good, except for the picture on the window opposite me.  It was a significant way off of horizontal, a detail exacerbated by the venetian blinds backing the picture and screaming attention to the anomaly.

At first I tried to wave down a nurse or PSA to advise them of the problem. Then common sense kicked in and I decided it wasn't that urgent and could wait for the next nurse that attended me.  No nurse came.  My next visitor was Associate Professor Eng Ooi.  After explaining the details of the surgery, it was my turn, so I let him know about the picture being askew.  It didn't seem to be much of an issue to him.  Hmmm.

I got taken back to my room to find Alison and our friend Michelle.  I was pain free, warm all over and loving life.  It was a really nice couple of hours amidst a pretty rough couple of weeks.