Pre-Surgery Nerves

There is nothing intrinsically scary about major surgery. I know that. Perioperative deaths are relatively rare these days. Risk factors include age, high blood pressure, high heart rate, co-morbidities, access to critical care immediately post surgery, and the skills and training levels of the surgeon and anaesthetist. None of these is a concern for me.

Also I am very well aware of the consequences of non-intervention which are, not to put too fine a point on it, ultimately fatal.

Yet I'm scared.

Physician Struggling with Death For Life.
Photogravure by Ivo Saliger NLM.

We thought I was being admitted today for an overnight stay pre-surgery, but it turns out it's tomorrow: we're to get there at 7 a.m. (leave home around 5 - I didn't even know there was a 5 a.m.) and then I'll shower, have the pre-med and away we go.

Godfrey has the worst of it, coming all that way with me at dawn, then back home for some kip (how likely is that to happen?) then back to see me in the afternoon, when I'll be drooling and covered in drips and drains in CCU. Lucky man.

But this is the NHS, we have to ring this afternoon to check if there's been a last minute cancellation because of some poor sod in a much worse state than I am. If that's the case, I'll let everyone know.