Wakey Wakey...

First of all, an apology. This hasn't turned out to be quite what I'd hoped it would be. I had hoped for a detailed recollection of all that I went through with the transplant and recovery but have left it far too long for that. Instead, what you will get is a lightly fuzzy, sometimes second hand account of my time at the Royal Free.

Secondly, I would like to emphasise that this is an account of what happened to me. The transplant experience and recovery process is different for everyone so whilst I hope this can provide some information about what to expect from recovery, each and every person will respond differently. 

I was woken up from surgery at around 7pm on Thursday 29th October and was taken to Intensive Care where my parents were finally allowed to see me. I cannot imagine the sense of relief they must have felt to see me having not quite made it to the hospital before I went into surgery. Personally, I don't remember any of this evening so what you read is taken from notes made by Mum.

Apparently, though massively doped up, I was awake, telling jokes and singing... One of my favourites was spurred on by Caius' frequent sighs of 'ay, ay ay'. This led to the following little ditty:

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Si, si senora,
My sister Belinda,
She pissed out the window
And filled up my brand new sombrero

This was of course recited at the top of my voice. Thankfully at the time, my vocal volume wasn't what it usually is!

I also liked to remind people that I was a little glow-worm... (a glow worm's never glum, 'cos how can you be grumpy when the sun shines out your bum).

It appears that I also wanted to remind my mum how much I loved her and kept saying 'I love you mummy'. 

As I have said, I don't remember any of this. When I came out of surgery, I was pumped full of a variety of painkillers which were being administered through lines in my neck. I was hooked up to machines which constantly monitored my stats such as heart rate, oxygen level and loads of others. I also had an oxygen tube up my nose, lines in each of my arms and a catheter in. I'm pretty sure I went to sleep fairly early despite having been asleep all day!

The following photos may be difficult for some people to view as they show the lines and monitors that I was hooked up to. I do feel however, that it is important to show everything that the transplant procedure entails.