By lunchtime the pain was getting quite bad. I normally take my morning meds between about 6.30 and 8am and then take some paracetamol around midday to 1pm. Due to the pre-surgery fasting I’d taken my morning meds at 5.30, and sitting around in the waiting room was far from ideal, so by 1pm I was really in need of something. The anaesthetist popped in to see how I was and agreed I should have some paracetamol. A little relief at least.
I the. saw the lady I’d been speaking to earlier be taken down to theatre, and I knew she was two ahead of me on the list and only having a short procedure (20 mins for a battery swap) so started getting the feeling things were about to happen. Sure enough about 1.30 Mr Mundil came in and took me through to the day ward. Unfortunately this was to break the news that the technicians from the scs company, who need/like to be present for a new fitting, had been delayed on a case at another hospital and Mr Mundil was unsure they would be in Southampton in time to do the procedure today. His preference was to let me go home there and then rather than wait another hour or more and probably still end up cancelling. He did say though that he can put me into a theatre slot first thing on Friday morning (next week) so there is no reason to suspect there will be a problem – his first case, the technicians first case etc.
Inevitably I was gutted, but it made sense not to be hanging around any longer with still the chance of being cancelled, so off we went ready to return another day.