Thoughts from the frontline - 24

So, after a Sunday night and Monday morning of pain I had woken up early Monday afternoon feeling allllright! Fingers crossed that the rest of the week would be ok too. The target was to get home for the weekend. Saturday or Sunday would be good by me, if I could achieve that I would feel very pleased with myself. And to do that I needed to be good. Very good and do what I was told. So as the days went from Monday to Tuesday I did all the exercises instructed by the physio and slowly increased my normal food intake as the three meals a day came and went. I took gentle exercises by walking around the ward and most importantly learnt to cough without ripping my stomach apart! Entertainment was provide by the radio, my fellow patients, the ward staff and the doctors on their rounds. I was that annoying patient that always cracked a joke, told a story, stopped off at the bedsides of other patients for a chat and waxed lyrical about the wonderfulness of the NHS. Note here, I have always been a massive fan of the NHS and this recent experience has now made me even more passionate. You dis the NHS you have me to deal with!! I have also taken on a medical adviser role with Matt in the next door bed to me. Now Matt is a great guy but absolutely crap at dealing with his diabetes. Only early 30's he has never been able to get his head round what he has to do hence why he does all the wrong things and has real healing problems whenever he gets any medical problems. Matt, by his own description, has problems reading and gets very angry with the world at the slightest problem. It's what he does. But I like Matt. So over the days we have together I slowly go through what I did to get my diabetes under control. Nothing complicated, nothing clever just simple rules to slowly get to that magic blood sugar level reading that made the nurses smile. And we did it. By Wednesday Matt had moved his BM level from over 20 down to below 10 all the time. He was just eating better and cutting out the things he though were good but had hidden processed sugars. Who would know how bad a sausage roll was for you if nobody told you and how fresh fruit is good but only after a meal. Who would know that a steak & kidney pie can have a much sugar as a mars bar if you hadn't bee told. Matt had been given lots of leaflets by his diabetes team but hadn't realised he was not very good at reading. And unless you spent time with him, time we had together waiting on the ward for things to happen, how could you explain simply so that he didn't go into a panic and become aggressive all the simple tips for getting control. Matt - keep it up mate :-) And so it was Wednesday, just six days after my operation and the morning doctors round started not long after breakfast. I was feeling good and I had a bright smile on my face when they arrived at my bed. "Morning" the registrar says. "Morning" I reply. "How do you fancy going home today" she says. "Pardon?" I say... So I ring the lovely T "What to come and take me home later today? I need to wait to see the Stoma nurse just once more later this afternoon but I CAN COME HOME TODAY!!!!!!!!!" This was great news. Fantastic news. Amazing news. 8 days post surgery was our target for the best possible outcome and I was going home after just 6!!!! Fanbloodytastic!!!!! And best news at all, Matt was being allowed home today too... Andrew xx