I opened my eyes, the clock opposite me slowly came into focus. It was 12.30, I slowly registered where I was, I could see lots of activity around me, trolleys with people on them being pushed in and out of theatres. People asleep on trolleys in the bay opposite me. I was in the Recovery area and it was clearly quite busy in there.

I felt a bit uncomfortable, like I'd nodded off in a bad position and woke up aching. So, I sat myself bolt upright on the trolley with the intention of sorting out my pillows and getting a bit comfier.

'Steady on!!!! Let me help you.' said the nurse. I hadn't noticed her, she had been sitting by the side of my trolley filling out paperwork and quietly getting on with her work. She helped...

A couple of weeks after the pre-op, I still hadn't heard anything and I was constantly on pins. I had been on nights and was due a couple of days off. Sparks said that he would take me out for a meal as I had worked 2 lots of weekends, on nights, so we hadn't really had much in the way of a social life.

I had a few hours sleep after my last night, got up and got showered and dressed and put my face on, ready to go out for my tea. I felt a bit iffy but I felt off most days now so didn't worry about it.

We had a lovely meal over in Grindleton and I enjoyed every mouthful. We were home nice and early, so I put my feet up and watched Call the Midwife, it is so civilised to be able to just sit in your own home at night...

I went to my pre- op appointment mid January. It was all very straightforward. My blood tests were repeated, as the lot that I had had done at New Year were a bit abnormal. I had a load of paperwork filled in and a few questions answered.

I was horrified to find that I would need about 6 weeks off... Six weeks!!!!! what the hell am I going to do with myself for all that time?? The nurse said that it was a common misconception with keyhole surgery that you recover in a couple of weeks. She said that the outside scarring won't be as bad, but the inside is, and seeing as they will be removing an organ, this is still major abdominal surgery...... Yikes!!!

I had to break the news to work that I would be unavailable...

So, there I was, playing the waiting game. I was trying to be as good as I could be by reducing the fat in my diet in an attempt to reduce the amount of attacks I was getting. It's easier said than done to eat low fat. When I started looking at the contents of various foods eg pasta sauces, ready meals, various meats, coleslaws etc. they were all incredibly high in fat, even the ones claiming to be low fat!!!

I cut out cheese, sausages, cream, fatty meats like lamb, brisket, cakes, biscuits, crisps, nuts......the list is endless and it was all my favourite stuff. I replaced all this stuff with more fruit, veggies, chicken, white fish. I found to my delight that I could cope with salmon and reduced fat mince. Cottage cheese replaced...

Well, there we were in A&E. It was really busy, I saw the triage nurse and then went back into the waiting room and waited, and waited, and waited..... I have to give the staff here some credit as I'm fairly sure that me and Sparks were the only people in there who weren't drunk. The language was appalling and people were generally abusive. I really don't know how they work there, it's been a long time since I worked A&E and I'm darned sure it never used to be that bad.

I rocked away in my seat waiting to be seen, the pain had started to ease a bit and I was going to suggest to Sparks that we go home but I knew what his reaction would be. We were duly called in and I was seen by a 12 year old doctor - am I getting old...