22:15 dad loads better watching harry potter. Jealous, Dad? No? Didn't think so!! :-))))))))oooooooooooo

still movin on up, feeling better over all each day. very up and down and a=
mazed how tired i am. had some visitors today and i was worn out when they=
went. Spiked a bit of a temp but back to normal now. Sharon the ITU Nurse =
came to see me today, very impressive.i have wind which is a good sign

things are getting lots better Ally was more impressed with me last night .=
i am now drinking 200mls an hour and feel much more human. iam up walikng =
but still have belly pain . mr kerrigan has rang the ward to check howi am.=
he seems pleased.expecting visitors this pm hope i can stay awake.i rang m=
e mam this am she was upset how ill i looked theother day. made up to here =
from me.everything pointing well to a startbon food tomorrow,keep you posted

pain lights noise needles blood alarms. intensive care was just that, back =
to the ward after 18 hours. more of the same just lower tech. still on oxyg=
en and morphine but getting better. not much fun here=20

:-) Dad out of theatre at 23:30 4/09/02 he is fine on a drip and oxygen for a bit he is groggy :-( and tired |-(zzzzzzzz so not the bst mood natch bye bye night night

Ally's news update live from the Clare household

21:18 in theatre now- wonder when he is going to get out

5.30 and still on the ward. The laterit gets the less I feel like its going=
to happen. It cant be cancelled again can it?

Probably my last posting for a while - who knows how long, hopefully jean a=
nd ally will keep you informed. Visitors welcome after tomorrow. Jeff has j=
ust been in to see me and jean. It was great to be able to speak to someon=
e who knew exactly what i was going through. Catch you later. =20

looks like i'm not going to theattre till 4 or 5. anaesthetist says there i=
s a bed in ITU. and my new bigboy bed has arrived at the ward. jean has bee=
n in and gone off to see her mate in ot over in the main building. Mr kerri=
gan has been in and I told him I'd put together a website for the service f=
or him. He introduced me to Jeff a fine character who had the op last june =
and has gone from 32 to 14 stone. He was a great bloke and it was really go=
od to get the user perspective on it. I feel so much better after talking =
to him. He said the first few days are terrible but keep foccussed. He also=
summed the difficulties of being obese in 4 great sentences, and pointed o=
ut how they had changed now. He showed me his belly and told me he is off f=
or some cosmetic surgery later in the year.

Disclaimer

anything written in the next 48 hours or so is completely deniable and will=
be attributed to lack of food, sleep excess drugs or post op psychosis - y=
ou have been warned. The computer I am using (known as jornada) had flat ba=
tteries this morning, i probably left it switched on but there is a nigglin=
g doubt that the night guards made merry on it all night. Any way i had a p=
oor nights sleep and had plenty of time to spout material for this blog and=
the first 7 volumes of my autobiography.I'll see if I can preserve some of=
the less bizarre stuff for posterity here.

Chits

It came too me in the night as a blinding flash, they are what we need in t=
he NHS, their reintroduction could solve 99% of ills.For those who dont kno=
w a chit is a piece of paper, signed by someone in authority, which has mag=
ical powers. When I trained as a nurse in the late seventies they were the =
lifeblood of the hospital. Produced from a simple numbered duplicate book =
with a piece of carbon paper they were the open sesame to a world. Armed wi=
th a chit you could queue in central stores for hours. Your chit would be c=
losely examined by an exmilitary man with a tash, a long brown coat and a =
pencil behind his ears, he would frown look you up and down and dissapear i=
nto the netherworld "round the back" He would emerge from round the back s=
ome time later with the goods, A chit could get you anything........woodbin=
es, patients for the use of, or guinness or even mackesons. A chit got me a=
three piece suit once, and 30 sausage rolls. The best chit of all was one =
requesting a blank book of chits, armed with this golden ticket you could g=
et a book for yourself and have hours of fun. I think they may have stopped=
them because they were open to abuse. I think they tried to replace em wit=
h the reqqy or even new fangled computer systems. Eric Chitty was for me th=
e chit-meister general, he loved them so much he changed his name to honour=
them. He found stardom in later life as the old bloke in please sir, A cla=
ssroom based 70's sitcom.
Chits, gawd bless 'em c'mon alan mliburn, we are all chitless here put it r=
ight, lets get central control back properly in this system. Can I be the c=
hit czar please?=20
If anybody is still reading this please let me know. =20

Perioperative visit

Well i am dead impressed, one of the sisters from critical care has just be=
en to see me. she spent 20 mins going over post op stuff. She told me about=
the tubes i would have drips,arterial line,catheter,ecg pads, oxygen mask =
and monitor,nasogastric tube. They dont give patient controlled analgesia(p=
ain relief) the gas man prefers you to be awake and ask for it. They will g=
et me up on thursday am with the fizzioterrorist who will get me coughing.=
Getting up early is key to preventing clots. She said it was a noisy place =
with lights. She said I can have my glasses as soon as i wake. Good coz I g=
et more paranoid when i cant see. she asked me did i want to go for a tour =
of the unit. I declined and had tea and toast. i will be fasting from midni=
ght coz at this stage they dont know what time I am going to theatre. The w=
ound will be closed with staples and wont leave much of a scar (shucks). Sh=
e was really sensitive and caring I am dead impressed. No watching losy fil=
m till night pills come

well still no bed to sleep in, but they are looking. i can sleep in the big=
boy recliner if i need to. posting to the blog is haphazard - the technolo=
gy sucks. please forgive poor appearance.the girls have gone for the night,=
and i will see ally again on thursday. tomorrow is the big day - hopefully=
. =20

things are getting better. i have a fan and a jug of water (funny how small=
things become very important), they are tracking down a big boys bed and c=
hair. Off to c clinic 400 yards away pulled by brenda and heather. accordin=
g to the scales i have put on 10kg in 1 week. I havent been dieting but don=
t believe that. They could do with their own scales here to save that embar=
rassing drag through the outpatients.=20

we were late we had stopped off at the tai pan for some excellent dim sum. just after 2 o'clock we arrived, history taken by a different doctor from lastweek. Back in same room. still very hot in here. no evidence of heavy equipment yet. Blood taken.

Some places that make me laugh
Private Eye
Are you local?
Drink!
The Office
Well I've a feeling the blog might be deficient in humour for the next couple of days

The chair - Ok it is too big, it fills the room and it has a Five inch raise on it. Its only when I look at how low the other chairs are in the room I realise why I have had pain when sitting in them, and trouble getting out of them. Such a simple measure, but what a difference.

Right, time to get affairs in order again before I go into hospital. Not that much has changed in a week. Check policies and all that, quite sobering really. Getting a steady stream of feedback about the new look (the site not me). Jean has just returned from the Independent living centre with a chair they have lent me. I went for a seating assessment last week ( I forgot to tell you). I need a higher chair, coz of hips back and knees, and being post-op. They have lent me a big boy special and risers. An OT is coming to assess me in hospital tomorrow I think. By the way both my PC and phones are playing up this morning - aint technology brilliant. Until PC's are as reliable as the telly or a lightbulb they wont be fully adopted by the population as a whole.

Right we are definitely on again. The Sefton Suite have just rung, 2pm tomorrow, fast from midnight and op Wednesday afternoon. A result

Thought I'd change the look....