Progress

It is good to know you had a positive experience.
I had major surgery, six hours in theatre, but was up and about 8 hours later and home on the 6th day. I believe the improvements in anaesthetics make recovery so much faster.

Its nice to hear a good news story about the NHS. We are very lucky to have it and we have to realise that the bad news stories are the minority. Glad you are feeling well Mollie.

DH had an op for an inguinal hernia under general anaesthetic last year and was in and home the same day. He was up and about (though moving very gingerly) the next day. It took him about three weeks before he was moving around properly, but a chap we often see when we are out fishing was telling us that he had the same op eighteen years ago and had a stay in hospital followed by weeks of bed rest. (When they got on to comparing the size of their scars, I walked away!!). I have to agree about your conveyor belt remark mollie. I couldn't fault DH's treatment, but I couldn't help thinking at the time that it might have been better for him and for me if they had kept him in overnight. Twenty four hours made a lot of difference to the way he felt, and actually getting him into the car, then out of the car after a drive of a hour and a half, and into the house and up the stairs was something I wouldn't want to repeat in a hurry. But of course the more patients they can treat in a day, the more it keeps the waiting lists down.

When you think about it, too, heart operations are now performed as a routine, and patients up, out of bed, and very often home within a week. Pain-killers help so much these days.

So many operations are now done in day units that we forget about hospital stays for the same thing. The one bad thing I can see is that the people at home think, because you are home, you are fine and can carry on doing what you did before, or is that just my lot?

I was sent home after 48 hours when I had my appendix out a couple of years ago Obie

Thinking about it though, the one years ago was NHS, the second one was in a G8 country. Though I assume it is the same in the NHS?

True, Appendix operations were a revelation to me. Instead of 6 weeks recuperation, up and back at work within 1.

Good for you - hope you will be fully well soon.

Glad you're feeling so perky. Undoubtedly one of the many medical advances in the last 40 years has been in anaesthiology – and what a relief that has been for any of us who has needed major surgery. I hope you're fully recovered and well again soon.