\nMy anaesthetic colleague regaled us with stories from her recent\u00a0m\u00e9decin sans fronti\u00e8res\u00a0<\/em>posting to South Sudan (hair raising) to take our minds off things as she inserted his iv line. The surgeon had a cursory chat and then said \u201csign here\u201d, pointing to the consent form. Soon everything was in readiness, and he got wheeled off to theatre.
\nI\u2019d stupidly left my phone at home (second time in a week\u2026simply distracted or \u00a0rapidly progressive dementia?), so I hopped back in the car and joined the rush hour traffic back home. To while away the time I did a few chores like mowing the lawns, tidying up, and feeding the fish, and after a couple of hours, I got a phone call from the surgeon to say the surgery was over and everything had gone well.<\/p>\n
As it was just me by now, I went back to the hospital on my scooter, as parking at the new hospital remains dire. As a VIP I was allowed into the recovery area, where Simon was awake but still fairly stunned, or \u201cshattered\u201d in his own words. The recovery nurse had already called the ward staff to come and pick him up, which they duly did not long after I arrived.
\nHe is in room 17 on level 4, which is easy to find as it\u2019s currently the only ward in the private hospital. It is a lovely room, big and shiny and new , with its own en suite and views across the roof tops to some nearby pohutakawa trees.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4185-768x1024.jpeg?resize=525%2C700&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
Simon\u2019s nurse is a lovely lady whom I have worked with for years. She did his obs – heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, temperature – and then asked how his pain was. He looked at me for a long minute, not sure why? And then said six out of ten. She offered him some pain relief and he bargained her down to a quarter of what she\u2019d been going to give him. By the time she returned though, and explained that they didn\u2019t have tablets that small, he\u2019d changed his mind and decided to go for paracetamol only instead.
\nWhile she was out of the room, he said he was certain he\u2019d feel better if he could only get dressed and sit up in a chair. He\u2019s a remarkably stubborn man and I was seriously alarmed by now. (Does the phrase \u2018discharged against medical advice\u2019 ring any bells?) In the end I said I\u2019d help him get up but first I wanted to buy myself some lunch. I took my time on that excursion and by the time I returned he was feeling more relaxed, the pain relief having kicked in, and was even having a little doze.<\/p>\n
He was more his usual self after a rest, so had a pee and then got dressed, much to his nurse\u2019s dismay. We had a wander around the hospital, including outside as it\u2019s such a gorgeous day. There was slim pickings for lunch at the hospital cafe by now but he had a second double espresso and a gluten free chicken salad sandwich. \u00a0By the time we got back to the ward it was 2:30 and the lunch he\u2019d ordered still hadn\u2019t arrived, so that I had to go and tell the nurses so they could hurry the kitchen up. (Simon: \u201cOne star review!\u201d) The lunch when it arrived was fairly measly as befits someone immediately post op so it was lucky Simon had pre emptively supplemented it from the cafe. I had the leek and potato soup which was flavoursome if rather salty.<\/p>\n
By now it was pretty clear that Simon was well enough to go home. He has a night\u2019s stay booked in the hospital, but\u00a0East or west, home is best!\u00a0<\/em>So we\u2019ll go back to our place if the surgeon gives us the go ahead. Really Simon looks extraordinarily well, better than anytime during our holiday in fact, so I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be fine. He is currently catching up on his work emails, while we wait for the surgeon to finish his list and do his post op ward round. Simon is the living embodiment of \u2018mind over matter\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n We never got to see our surgeon after all, as unfortunately the last case on his list was far less straightforward than a simple lap chole, and he was still in theatre when we went home around 6:30. Luckily his faithful nurse\/PA was on hand to organise our discharge. Or S day? For surgery? Or O day (operation)? Or, indeed L day (laparoscopic cholecystectomy), or even G day (gallbladder). In fact, virtually any letter but D. But whatever it\u2019s called, today was The Big Day\u2026Simon has had his gallbladder removed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-3eg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12168,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/21\/7-am-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":12416,"position":0},"title":"7 am update","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In the end it was 4 am before they called Simon\u2019s name. Well, actually they called \u201cSimone\u201d which I assumed was some weird local pronunciation but became clearer when we saw they\u2019d misspelled his name on his wristband. We were privileged to get a cubicle all to ourselves, because some\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_3462-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12352,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/18\/husband-medical-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":12416,"position":1},"title":"Husband medical update – SNAFU","author":"Interloper11","date":"October 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Simon had his abdominal ultrasound scan on Friday, and it was reassuring.\u00a0 Yes, there are gallstones and sludge in the gallbladder, as expected, but there\u2019s nothing else sinister going on in there. Also, the gallbladder itself is fairly thin walled and relaxed, ready and waiting to be whipped out by\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12422,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/23\/weekend-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":12416,"position":2},"title":"Weekend update","author":"Interloper11","date":"November 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Nothing much has happened this weekend but I haven\u2019t posted anything for a week so I\u2019ll fill you in anyway. It\u2019s been a long weekend for me up at the beach house since I\u2019ve got today (Monday) off. I arrived on Thursday night and on Friday morning did an endoscopy\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4199-768x1024.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4199-768x1024.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4199-768x1024.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13240,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/30\/saturday-august-29-fontainebleau\/","url_meta":{"origin":12416,"position":3},"title":"Saturday August 29 Fontainebleau","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The rain came back overnight, and it was cloudy while we had our buffet breakfast. There was a wide range of cold food, and also a stove top where you could reheat pre-prepared crepes, which was very popular. I got to practice my French again afterwards, including the subjunctive \u201cI\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6854-225x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11398,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/01\/on-your-bike\/","url_meta":{"origin":12416,"position":4},"title":"On your bike","author":"Interloper11","date":"February 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Simon got hit by a car last week. Dont worry, he\u2019s fine. We had just been to the bicycle shop to get a new, more comfortable saddle fitted to my new bike. The lady went through the options with me first. The most popular one they sell didn\u2019t look much\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_0495-1024x683.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_0495-1024x683.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_0495-1024x683.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13228,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/still-thursday-paris\/","url_meta":{"origin":12416,"position":5},"title":"Still Thursday! Paris","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Got to the gate before Simon in the end, and there was some sort of unexplained delay in boarding, but we got underway without too much delay. An uneventful 11 hour flight, and arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris at 9pm. An hour later, we were letting ourselves\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4186-768x1024.jpeg?resize=525%2C700&ssl=1\")
\nSimon wanted to drop into the supermarket on the way home, probably afraid that I might otherwise insist on cooking. As he fondled the avocados, and selected the most expensive cuts of beef, I couldn\u2019t help thinking no one would suspect that he\u2019d had major surgery today.
\nI\u2019m really very pleased that everything has gone so well. A last minute sartorial change of mind, to wear seasonally appropriate white jeans, had meant I\u2019d had to forgo my lucky underpants (black with white polka dots), and I\u2019m certain Simon\u2019s enforced undignified white paper ones would have had no power to promote good fortune. So, he\u2019s done so well from shear force of will, plus of course excellent care from the team looking after him. Thank goodness!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"