Ireland day 0801. Friday 08 December 2023- Hernia *

Ireland day 0801. Friday 08 December 2023- Hernia

Today’s summary	Spent the day at the Bon Secours hospital in Glasnevin having a hernia repair operation
Today’s weather	Rainy in the morning, but a bit brighter in the afternoon. Strong south westerly wind. Appx 8c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where I walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

I’ll be honest – I was not looking forward to today very much. Having surgery is traumatic enough at the best of times, but having it in a foreign country was doubly so. Anyway, I ad arranged go be seen first on the surgeon’s list (Mr Stafford) so I didn’t have too long to stew on things.

My admission time was 7am, so we sent out alarms for 5:45 and dragged ourselves out of bed and got ready to go. It’s not far from Malahide to the Bon Secours hospital (it’s in Glasnevin, near to the Botanics), so we were comfortably there well before the appointed time.

The admissions procedure was straightforward. Val accompanied me for the few steps in the journey (moral support was greatly appreciated!) then I was left to my own devices. The operation itself started at around 9am and I am told it took just a little over an hour. But you’re not really very with it immediately after having had a general anaesthetic and I’m not sure I really took everything in properly, I do remember seeing the clock at one point, and noticing that it was 12 noon already.

The surgeon did a quick ward round once I was more or less back in the living, and professed to be satisfied with how it went. I was kept in Recovery for a couple of hours then told I could get dressed and call for Val to rescue me. So far everything has gone straightforwardly and I’m not in too much pain. But I’m not getting overexcited as I’m still woozy from the anaesthetic and I think that when it fully wears off, I might feel a little differently.

Well now I’m just waiting for Val to drive over to collect me. Then I’ m looking forward to a quiet weekend with no rushing around. Today represents another major milestone achieved in what has been a truly momentous year for us both. It’s great fun being busy, setting and hard objectives and then delivering them. But I must admit I’m rather hoping that 2024 is just a bit less exciting all round!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


You can’t eat or drink anything for 12 hours before the operation, so I was determined to max out on high calorie, easy to digest, treats while I still could last night. Especially so when they were less than half price!	Goodness knows why they have to put such a massive canula into he back of your hand. Removing all the sticky tape that holds it in place is the most painful part of the whole operation

Pleased to have survived, but feeling a bit dopey. Glad to have got the surgery out of the way	You know you are OK when the nurse offers you tea and toast!



Getting plumbed in and ready to go