Brain tumour

Hi all!

As a Christian, Christmas, for me is a time for celebration as well as looking forward to eating everything in sight! However, I'd like to share with you a little of how I felt when hospital loomed and I knew I had to have a serious operation to remove my very own brain tumour!

It isn't morbid or gory or frightening - maybe amusing and funny and moving - stay with me and decide for yourself!

My first venture into the ward was frightening and to say I was nervous is an understatement! There were all these women, some in night-clothes, come dressed, and they were trundling around as if in a silent movie - all at what seemed a hundred miles an hour! They were talking nineteen to the dozen and had food everywhere - in bags, on their lockers and in their mouths! I thought I was having a hallucination!

After a few days, I discovered I was doing exactly the same thing - we were all on those beloved steroids! Most of you will know what I mean - the steroids seem to speed up your whole metabolism and the world passes you by at a much slower rate! I won't bore you with the tests and pioneering treatment I had - suffice to say I am still in awe today and will be for a long time to come!

The day of my operation came and I had my bath and was ready emotionally but an emergency case meant it had to be cancelled so, as my surgeon only operated on the NHS two days a week, I decided to go home where I could be more 'normal' until the next slot for my operation came around.

This happened a further couple of times but these emergency cases could have died had it not been for the skill shown to them at Addenbrookes Hospital.

Well! Now it was my turn and a clutch of medics in their green gowns suddenly descended on me and I was whisked off to the operating theatre. My husband Arf was speechless and the last thing I saw was him being comforted by a nurse as I descended into a black nothing!

When I woke up, I felt marvellous!

You have to bear in mind that much of what happened during the next few hours is a blank and I was on another planet so Arf has filled in the blanks!

I felt so good that I couldn't believe that I'd had the operation, not seeing all the tubes and wires that made me look like a puppet! As I became agitated, they called down one of the surgeons who had been involved in the operation, to try and talk some sense into me. Fat chance! I remember his face, though! But! On his way out of the High Dependency Unit, this man, who had just an hour before performed such delicate surgery on me, WALKED INTO THE DOOR!

My Arf burst out laughing (he was in a state of pure relief at this point!) and the surgeon just rolled his eyes towards Heaven and grinned! I never looked back and was home within a week! The hard part was yet to come, but I was alive!

As I said at the beginning, Christmas is a time to be thankful and I am! Jesus Christ's birth was the miracle of all time but my miracle came in small shoes. Happy Christmas and a wealth of happiness for 2003.

See ya next month!