Day 226

We duly went to Southampton General Hospital. I had what is known in medical terms as a dilatation. The process was that initially the Consultant who operated on me in the Summer did a Gastroscopy to check that a dilatation was needed. This involved him sticking a small camera down the back of my throat. Having satisfied himself it was right, he then removed said camera and then set about widening the gullet. The whole process I am told took around 40 minutes.

I say I am told because they sedated me so I knew nothing of what was going on. In view of past problems with Endoscopy Units, I on my way to the Hospital resolved to go along with what ever was suggested. Bless then they apologised to me and said they recommended sedation where a dilatation was involved. I kept a straight face and said I was happy to go along with what was suggested. As a result I was blissfully unaware of what they did to me. Certainly a good job was done because I felt no after effects. In fact the only blot on their record was that the Nurse hadn't put the Cannula in properly so it had to be redone in the operating room. We were told that it was quite likely further such procedures would be needed one as early as 6 weeks ahead. We shall see.

They told me to take it easy as far as food is concerned for the next couple of days. I had some fish in sauce for tea tonight and coped with that very well. It is too early yet to form a judgement on whether this has made any difference or not.

Having gone straight in to the preparation area to get ready for the"procedure", I left Ev at 10.00. It was after 130 when I was reunited with her. This was partly due to the fact that I had had to wait my turn to go to the operating room. This didn't in fact happen until after 11. I was left to sleep the effects off until about 1.00. I was then given tea and a biscuit. Unfortunately Ev at 1215 was told that I should be out in 15 minutes. Consequently she missed Lunch and had to eat a sandwich almost on the run and we headed back to the ferry.

Strange world continued when we saw this taxi outside but we couldn't get in it without going back into the Hospital and making a free phone call to the Company to book it. We don't half have some weird laws in this country.

We got home shortly after 4.00 after crawling home through heavy traffic between Cowes and Ryde(14 miles in 40 minutes).

I'll report on progress on the next few blog entries.