The Evelyn Hospital in Cambridge
The Evelyn Hospital in Cambridge

After touring Paxton and St Neots delivering all of my letters and undertaking building society transactions, we drove to The Evelyn Hospital for my nose Operation. It was later in the day that I had my Pre Med and later still to have my operation after which the sickness and bleeding was difficult to cope with.

I had worked out that it had been forty years since I last had an operation - my appendectomy at the age of five - and so I approached today with particular trepidation. I could only have toast and coffee around 7.15am and then was allowed no food or drink for the rest of the day. Diana drove me to Cambridge, but first we went around St Neots and Paxton delivering all of my letters and things and then getting some money from the St Neots building societies. We arrived on time at the Evelyn Hospital, just on 11.00am, and I was given a registration form to fill in and went, with Diana, to the waiting room.

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I had to pay the sum of £1,149 in advance as I was undergoing private treatment and did not have any medical insurance. This inclusive price was for the hospital room for two nights, the surgeon, anaesthetist, food and nursing help which I did not think was too bad. Once the formalities were completed, I was shown to room 222 and allowed to settle in. A nice private room with its own en-suite toilet, shower, TV and plenty of cupboards, drawers and storage and they came and served Diana with a tray of coffee which certainly pleased her; though I was not allowed anything. Around 12.30pm, Mr Ellis came round and explained what was to happen and then so did the anaesthetist, Mr Wilkie, an hour later at which time he gave me an examination and asked lots of questions to ensure that I was not in risk of any trauma.

Mr Ellis had quite a full operating list, including several children to do first, and so I was last on the list after them. Diana was intending to stay and see me through the operation but, mine being the last, I let her go at 3.00pm to collect the girls and take Della to Brownies later. I was given a "Pre-Med" treatment nominally an hour prior to the operation (at 4.00pm) and then taken down to the theatre at 5.15pm. Mr Ellis then came through and inserted some local anaesthetic into my nose (cocaine, I think) and left that a while to dilate the blood vessels in my nostrils to hinder the blood flow and make the operation easier.

He said that I must be feeling tired and I said the same of him as he had a long afternoon of operations! However, he would have nothing of that, saying that he was just getting into his stride! I could understand that, actually, as they would start off diffidently and then gain momentum and confidence as the session progressed. It was probably around 5.45pm to 6.00pm that I was given the general anaesthetic intravenously in my left arm and then the next I knew was at 7.15pm when I was being taken back to my room and was left to recover further. I telephoned Diana almost immediately and told her that I had come round and was back in my room so that she would not worry.

By 8.30pm to 8.45pm, I had regained some sort of sensibility but was sick into the bowl provided soon after - a combination, I think, of the effects of the general anaesthetic but also of the need to get rid of the blood that was running down into my stomach, my nose being blocked with swabs and covered with a "bolster". It was Nurse Yardley looking after me and I was trying to master my grogginess and a headache. I was offered small sips of water and even tea (somewhat unwisely) and was promptly sick again at 2.30am, two-thirds filling the bowl with red liquid which I took to be blood!

Then, with a senior nurse, they gave me an injection via the buttock to try and stop the sickness and I remember not being very happy about this as I felt it was the blood that needed to be ejected anyway. Painkillers and a sleeping draught next despite which I carefully ventured out of bed and went to the toilet and then slept.