Biopsy

October 6th
Arrived at the hospital 20 minutes late. Not that it mattered. I was checked in, like at a hotel and was taken to my room, where I was then left to wait around for an hour or so before anybody came to talk to me about the biopsy. I'm covered by BUPA and so it's a private hospital and a private room. Quite posh it is too.It's in Central London and it even has a balcony. It's a shame the weather's rubbish; it would have been nice to sit outside.

Anyway, I get visited by one of the nurses at about 11:00am and fill in various forms etc and get told that the prep for the op will be at about 6pm. I also go for another MRI scan at 3ish where they stick these circular markers on my forehead and temples. These are opaque to the scanner and are used to create a 3D image of the brain to help Andy aim the drill etc so that he can get the brain samples he wants. After the scans are completed I'm given a CD with the scan images on to give to Andy.

I get visited by Andy at about 5 and we talk through exactly what he's going to do. Then he goes and I get changed into the op gown and slippers and get taken down to the operating theatre on a hospital bed. I meet the anaesthetist who then slides a needle into the top of my left hand. I hardly feel it. And that's the last thing I remember until I come to at about 9pm in the High Dependency Unit. The op's been completed, apparently. They check me for my reactions and grip strength, all of which seem to be fine. I've been catheterised too. Anyway, I'm left in the HDU all night and sleep is not easy. People are wheeled in and out; nurses and doctors are disucssing cases; lights go on and off; there are the inevitable machines that go “ping” and every so often, I'm woken up (if, indeed, I was asleep in the first place) by a nurse calling my name, apologising, then doing tests on me again like shining a torch in my eyes to check that my pupils contract.

Tues 7^th October

Although I've put this as a separate date, yesterday and this day are actually a sort-of blur. In the HDU I think I saw virtually every 20 minutes on the clock and occasionally drifiting off for short time and I'm still here

But the biopsy's been done and apart from a bit of jaw and earache (they have to move some of your jaw muscle out of the way before they drill in), I'm fine. I see Andy and we discuss things and I'll be seeing him again in a couple of weeks to discuss the results and at the end of this week I go to my local GP to get the staples removed from the incision. All very straightforward. I had been anticipating more hair being shaved from my head before the op but there's been very little It just looks like I've got a bit of masking tape on my right temple...

My only problem at the moment is that I can't sleep on my right hand side because that's where the stitches are. Or staples, rather.