Nadir

Tiredness increased. Waves of nausea swept about but I was never sick. Concentration was non existent. Visitors kept the days from weighing heavily.

The operation meant another pre dawn departure on the Tuesday but the previous Friday, late afternoon I got up from the sofa and it was like every degree of heat in me fell through the floor. Crawling up he stairs I managed to get into bed as the shivering started. I've never experienced anything like it. The violence and inability to control the shivering was a bit alarming but more so for my ever attentive carer who once again did all the right things. The out of hours doctor suggested seeing my GP on Monday. Fortunately we have a very close friend who is a community nurse. By now I was under significant weight of blankets and a fetching woolly hat but the shivers hadn't abated. My blood pressure was alright but my temperature was not. Hospital or not? The risk of being kept in one when my op was due in another was too great a risk. Paracetamol and three hours saw the worst pass into history.

Our nurse advised that it felt like an infection so no more visitors till after the op.
Saturday passed sleepily and Sunday drifted away with little notice. Even eating was too much effort. Monday was a bit brighter even though it was nil by mouth right up until about 4 when the shivering returned.

My carer phoned the cancer nurse whose number we had been given. Just get him here tomorrow morning she said. The shivering was every bit as bad as earlier, I think worse because this time it was accompanied by a violent bout of sickness which coincided with the doorbell announcing the presence of our highly esteemed nurse who was on her way home and though she'd see if all was well. It wasn't but she took charge and it became so.

Another 3 hours and the shivers had become a shake, the temperature reduced and the sweat mere perspiration.

Now I had to face the Carbohydrate Lemon. Four of them in only a few hours. How 300ml in the first bottle doubles in the second, again in the subsequent ones whilst all appearing the same size is beyond me.

Sleep was elusive, the trip down a blank but the final Carbohydrate Lemon was duly poured down at 0630 in the coffee shop in the foyer whilst the car was parked.

We had arrived. I didn't care in the slightest what happened next. It was enough that we had arrived at the time and place specified but I'd had nothing to do with it.

My carer had excelled, again.
Now it was over to the surgeons.