staying in

I have this strange feeling this morning - a bit like a child on Christmas morning or waking up to go on holiday.  But it's neither of these things.

It's not Christmas morning
I'm not going on holiday.

Today, everyone, for the first time in history it's gonna start raining men.  No scrub that, for thr first time in my history I'm having a general anaesthetic and spinal surgery.  It all sounds very exciting - titanium rods, plates and screws will be holding me together from my lower back down.  I really am genuinely looking forward to it.

I've met my surgeon - an extremely nice man called Michael McCarthy.  He seems quite eminent in his field with the added bonus of listing photography as his hobby on his website.

My operation entails:

- a new or partially new L3 vertebrae
- 2 titanium rods inserted from my L1 to L5
- the whole lot being held togethr with titanium plates, screws, nuts and bolts.

I hope I'm allowed to have a copy of the X-ray of the whole thing to post up on here at some stage in the future.

And now I've just met my anaesthetist - another very nice man called Dr. Geoff Wenham. The Procedure is likely to start around 1pm and is due to last for 3-4 hours with a further hour in recovery where, get this, I'll have a button to administer my own pain relief* before coming back up onto my ward.  (*I would envisage waking up around mid Thursday!!)

So that's it then - the morning will probably drag by like time in an airport departure lounge or worse still waiting for Currys to deliver a new washing machine.

It always does when you're excited and waiting for something.  Perhaps the name calling was warranted after all.

Thank you to everyone wso has left kind messages of support on Facebook, twitter or by text - they really mean a lot and are appreciated.

See you on the other side folks...