A mammoth undertaking

Into hospital early today, without food or drink, for the fitting of a stent into my bile duct, and hence curing the obstructive jaundice.

As we guessed, the duct was blocked by an enlarged lymph node. The upside was that it was possible to use a stent to cure it. The downside is that now the lymph node is being squashed by the bile duct! That is more painful than I was expecting. Moreover, my gut appears to be filling with black bile, at least I think it’s that variety of bile, which is making it hard to eat. The general pain has made it hard to get comfortable in any position, despite liberal application of the strongest painkillers I have. This evening, however, nine hours after the procedure is over, the pain is becoming quite tolerable, and I don’t think I’m going to need another pain killer until bed time.

The most nerve-wracking part of the day was returning home afterwards. While I was in theatre, the snow came down, and laid a two inch blanket over the whole of Worcestershire. The drive home lasted three times longer than the journey in to the hospital, all the time facing the prospect of not being able to climb the final hill to our house. Fortunately a lorry led the way through Malvern and up British Camp, so we were able to drive all the way home. I didn’t fancy a repeat of an earlier experience, where we walked nearly four miles in the snow. More, even heavier, snow is forecast later today, which may make tomorrow’s visit to the hospital too difficult. I hope we can do a telephone meeting instead.