Sorry I'm not here lately

I am having my aortic repair operation on Sept 12th and to be frank, I am in a bad way mentally over it.
I am suffering high anxiety 24/7 and it's making me ill. I hardly eat or sleep any more. The tranquillisers I am taking do next to nothing either.
I can't help the way I am....I've always suffered from both Tomophobia and Thanatophobia since childhood.
Didn't help when they told me that 1 in 25 people who have this op die either during or up to 30 days after the procedure.
  

Fuck me, Tone, you were dealt a 2 and a 4 with your phobias, weren't you? I'm no hero in surgery myself but my experience is of my old man saying "fuck it, it has to be done" and I have that as the streak of pragmatism a mile wide. Phobias are fucking awful though, and you have my utmost sympathy - I can't submerge my breathing holes without going into a blind fucking panic as mine and it is completely disabling. I don't fear water, I do clearly fear suffocation. I'd love to be able to swim as well. Possibly the single thing I feel I missed out most in life.

You know where we are if you need us and come in and have a rant or ramble me-style if it helps. The whimsical shit sometimes keeps me going, especially after what happened to me on Thursday. It was like a Brian Rix farce, only with shit...

I doubt you'd be a layer at 1.04 as well...

Good luck hon...hope everything goes well for you! x

God bless you both.

Nobby Cheese wrote:God bless you both.

let us know how it goes with you, please? x

Good luck although I'm sure you won't need it , anxiety is a horrible thing to suffer from wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy , don't worry it will be fine ,sending hugs xx

Thanks MJ
x

Thinking of you nobs

It's done, I'm mended.
Operated on me Friday at 8.50am.....Lasted 3 hours 5 minutes.
Got home this morning.
Cannot begin to tell you how much pain I am now in though. Worst I have ever experienced in my life and they reckon I won't fully recover for around 14 weeks. Can't drive for a month but on a brighter  note, I can't shag the missus for 6 months  either.
I had an endovascular stent graft where the went up through the groin.
Here's the details.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endovascular_aneurysm_repair

Having never had anasthesia or surgery I can honestly say that they are even worse than I imagined.
But I am alive.....God bless the NHS and Colchester Hospital.
Everyone was wonderful to from the lady who made the beds to the consultant surgeon.

Good to hear, Tone. Stent work is genius stuff, the advances in surgery in the last thirty years alone are little short of science fiction.

What's your recovery plan? And what have they given you for pain? 14 weeks is a long time and I have visions of your missus having the house spotless out of frustration and playing a lot of bingo while she's drawn a circle on the calendar six months hence that looks suspiciously like a cock and balls...

I have the district nurse coming in tomorrow to change my dressings. I have to wear surgical stockings for 8 weeks and I have to be on my feet for at least 15 minutes a day week one doubling for each following week. I take liquid morphine for the pain week one then it's onto everyone's favourite anti laxative Co  Dydramol....I have to keep turning my ankles constantly and I'm on a high liquid and high protein diet.
I feel like I've been hit by a bus inside and out. My wife has to help lift me from the bed and settee constantly. My sons have been coming round lifting me on and off the bog and bath.
Getting old is NOT for the faint hearted.

Good news nobby ,hope your recovery goes well , time flies you will soon feel better than before and mrs nobs will expect a shagathon

If I were to look for an upside, Tone, it's every landmark you hit afterwards is one in the eye for the cunt pulling the threads of fate who did this to you in the first place. Morphine on to codeine, nice, you'll be shitting diamonds with the pressure in there with those two. Mind you, you eat well enough and keep your fluids up, that might offset at least the morphine going in like china clay and coming out like a 64-piece earthenware tea set.

Stay well and get better.

At the moment I have two problems....well three really. This has left me a nervous wreck and I'm definitely suffering a form of PTSD.
My temperature keeps spiking badly.....I have reached 38.1 twice and regularly sit at 37.7 despite having cold towels on me plus a fan a foot away on full. If it reached 38.5 I have to call an ambulance....Because I am spending the night sitting up with a fan on me and cold things to place on my body, I can't sleep as I am frightened to not keep monitoring my temperature. I am only sleeping in two and 3 hours spells.....My body need so much more right now.
I am living a nightmare of fear, pain and discomfort.....I've also not had a shit since last Thursday morning.

Fuck me, Tone, if you're a permanent degree Fahrenheit minimum over (and so touching 100) you should have some sort of anti-pyretic, surely, even if it's only paracetamol?  I say "only" paracetamol of course but in my own experience it's fantastic temperature regulator.  It's an inbuilt in cocodamol/codydramol of course but liquid morphine won't have it in, surely?  Failing that, can you have alcohol?  Nuts as it may sound, it's the reason people who've had a drink die of exposure.

Not trying to teach you to suck eggs, but after something as complex as what you've had done you can find that the stuff that's to hand can get left behind by the expert looking after you on an assumption that "but you'll already know that"...  Always best to take them as a regular dose as well rather than as and when - they're more effective.

I carry paracetamol and loperamide with me everywhere.  They've astounded some people in how they actually work - I had a spell a couple of weeks back where my temperature must have gone through the roof in a matter of five minutes - I was literally raining sweat from my face, my arms were awash.  First aider thought an ambulance was in the offing, a manager thought the same, I said give me two paracetamol and twenty minutes, I'll be OK.  Sceptical, yes, proved wrong, more so.  There is some magic in the stock stuff sometimes...

Failing that, you should be on something for regulation.  Inflammation is part of healing but increased temperature isn't.

Come on, Tone, bit of therapy if you're up to it - how are you doing a few days in?

17 days after the op, still feeling very weak mate.
Had a lot of low grade fevers, lots of pain, lots of sleepless nights.
Mentally still fucked.
I'm suffering terrible depression right now.
I'll be on more when I feel better Bert.

Not a question of being on, Tone, more a question of getting a bit of self-induced therapy on the go. Everyone needs an outlet. I wish I'd taken up golf earlier as it removes the clutter from my head. I wish I'd drank whisk(e)y younger. And given the shite and gold I post in varying rations, I wish I'd kept a journal of my frankly fucking insane thought processes...

A month on, Tone, what's the word?

Bert.....my some miracle, I am A) Alive, B) Sane.
I will be back very soon I promise.
Moving home at the moment.
God bless you for caring.

Good to hear - I knew you'd been about here but hadn't seen you on Twitter so didn't want to press too hard.

If you ever want to do the therapy bit and write it up, of course...

Nobby Cheese wrote:Bert.....my some miracle, I am A) Alive, B) Sane.
I will be back very soon I promise.
Moving home at the moment.
God bless you for caring.

where to Spain ? Hi btw and good news

No, not Spain....much more glamorous....Westcliff on Sea.
Tell you everything soon.
I'm well, that is all that really matters right now.

Nobby Cheese wrote:No, not Spain....much more glamorous....Westcliff on Sea.
Tell you everything soon.
I'm well, that is all that really matters right now.

yep