On 1st March, Kathy and I got to the hospital for 7am to have my WLE and SLNB operation under general anaesthetic. After a few checks, measurements and questions, I was sent off to have the radioactive isotope put into my foot for the SLNB. It bloody hurt. They injected me about 6 different times all around the area where they had cut out the initial mole. It bloody hurt about 6 times! I then had to wait on the scanning bed while the isotope had time to move up my leg and I was then scanned so they could identify the nodes that would be taken out. An hour and a half later I was shuffling back down the corridor to meet Kathy who was a little concerned about why I’d been gone so long. No one had mentioned it would take the time it did and even the nurses were scratching their heads a little. I met the anaesthetist briefly who ran me through the procedure and checked a bit of paperwork and soon after I was off to theatre for the operation. I’m quite fortunate really that I don’t ever feel nervous about operations. I don’t know why, but they just don’t really bother me. I always feel much more sorry for Kathy, Mum and others who are worrying about me. They have the wait and the anxiety to deal with and are able to do nothing to help. All I have to do is lie on a bed, get injected with the anaesthetic, try and count to 10, fail and wake up hours later feeling groggy but pretty happy with life.

And that’s pretty much what happened. I was wheeled into a small waiting room adjoining the theatre and with Mr W happy he had everything he needed the anaesthetist did his bit and I was off.

I woke up in the recovery room with 3 or 4 other patients and spent a little while drifting in and out of consciousness. I felt fine. Sleepy, as I often feel and a little fuzzy, which isn’t uncommon either but no pain. My left leg was in a cast up to the knee and my thigh was tightly bandaged where they had taken the skin graft. I was wheeled into the ward and greeted by Kathy, although I don’t really remember that to be honest. I had come round a bit more when Mum, Claire (my sister) and her kids Alice and Nicholas arrived. They bought chocolates. They ate chocolates. Nicholas asked what the cardboard bed pan was for and I told him in a little too much detail for his liking. It was really good to see them, however after about an hour or so I decided that the after effects of the operation were starting to kick in and I really needed them to leave so I could get some sleep. As pure chance would have it, I ushered them out of the ward about 2 minutes before the Bath v Gloucester game kicked off and with my iPhone fully charged and reception good, I settled down to watch the game on Sky Go. Turns out I wasn’t as tired as I thought but you can never be too careful.

Bath won, which is always nice and when against Gloucester, is even nicer. I had a strange night that night though. I was wide awake until about 5am. Couldn’t sleep and didn’t even feel like sleeping. I just spent the entire night thinking. It was then that I decided to write this summary of my journey, although little did I know back then that there was so much more of the journey still to come. I eventually felt tired and went to sleep about an hour before the morning rounds began but I had plenty of time to catch up on sleep over the coming weeks.