Day 7: A day trip to Oxford

As I previously mentioned, I had been extremely fortunate to have been given the opportunity to have an ovary removed for the future should I need/want it, hold fire on any Anchorman quotes associated with this please… 😉

Fresh faced at 4:30 am, Mum and I were were up and ready for our trip to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. After a ‘short’ delay in our transport we were finally on route and arrived just on time for checking in… It is no coincidence that the staff at John Radcliffe were just as thoughtful, caring and patient with us as the staff at QA, again I must emphasise the treatment I am getting, I feel like royalty.

After an hour or so of pre-operative notes and chatting with the doctor who had arranged my surgery, my anaesthetists and surgeon, I was gowned up and waiting to be taken through for 11 am. I have never been under general anaesthetic before and so was intrigued to find out what it felt like and what you did/didn’t remember. As they gave me the drugs, I remember feeling heavy in my neck and shoulders and they were asking me about my last holiday…I think the last thing we spoke of was a G&T by the Atlas Mountains in Morocco (what a wonderful last thought), man I could nail a G&T right now!

Within what felt like 30 secs, but was actually around an hour, I was woken up by the anaesthetist and nurses. I really wanted someone to film me coming around, but a lass this could not be. I remember overly thanking everyone and highlighting how many women there were working there… And making some comment about great to have so many women in science!! Embarrassing! I think I managed to get a handle on normality pretty quickly, and didn’t feel woozy or sick, so was allowed back to my room after around 30 mins of monitoring, back with Mum (I was very happy to see her).

The surgery itself was performed laparoscopically and so my incisions are small and were only mildly uncomfortable. In order to perform the surgery this way, they have to fill your tummy with gas to inflate it… I believe they must remove most of it before ‘closing’, however a friend of mine, who recently had a similar surgery, informed me of the agitation with any remaining gas following surgery (don’t go thinking like a kid now). The gas manages to travel up to your shoulders (most frequently) and can be very uncomfortable. It feels like a constant stitch all over and around your shoulder/s, not fun! Thanks for the heads up Fitts, I can confirm, I too did not enjoy this!

Because I had a reaction to the first clotting drug they gave me, we had to wait a little for a different coagulant to be ordered and administered. This turned out to be quite a wait, but as always we were looked after and checked on constantly and they released me around 5:30 pm. We were finally on our way back to the sails of Portsmouth, (phew, we did it) and I got a McDonalds for dinner!

The John Radcliffe is one of the only hospitals doing this ‘experimental’ procedure/research in the country. They are not funded by the NHS, and so my surgery was possible by grant bids awarded to the department. Having a background in research myself, I know this is a tough way to fund projects of that scale and something that could have such a positive change on a women’s life. It definitely influenced my outlook on my future during this slight bump in the road, and hope I can be a success story from it. “Thank you to all the staff that work there who made today possible for me, I owe you one…. (Baby).”

“What is coming, is better than what is gone”