[lyndsay552]

A wee story for you all.

Last Monday I had a niggling pain on the right hand side of my abdomen and just put it down to trapped wind and a very heavy weekend. By Tuesday afternoon it hadn't moved location and was slowly getting worse, so when my husband got home from work I asked him to take me up to the Nile hospital, just to have it checked out.

I was taken straight in to a cubicle to be examined and I didn't like the look on the doctors face and when I asked what she thought it was she calmly replied 'It's probably just your appendix and I'll get the surgeon to look at it'

Alarm bells started going off in my head; I'm 5000 miles from home and they are talking about surgery.

The surgeon examined me and asked for a blood test and ultra-sound. By this stage my husband was also starting to get worried; every time someone examined me or took blood, he got ushered down to reception to pay.

As I left my room to go for the ultra-sound my husband said to me 'If this is just wind I'll kill you' I just laughed.

After the ultra-sound they started getting me ready for surgery. The nurse came in and handed me a gown and told me to take all my jewelery off and contact lenses out. My husbands face was a picture. He asked the nurse why and she replied 'Just a precaution'

About 30 mins later the surgeon came round and confirmed that I had appendicitis and they would be removing it straight away.

They finished preparing me and wheeled me of to the theatre. From entering the hospital to going to theatre was just over 3 hours.

The theatre was spotless and really modern looking. All the staff where excellent and tried their best to help me relax; which wasn't easy. The op took about 90 minutes and it turned out that my appendix had just started to rupture, the surgeon showed my husband the appendix in a jar and he said it looked like a red gherkin with pussey green stuff on the end. Lovely.

As you would expect I was very sore after the operation but the nursing staff where excellent and they enjoyed practising their English with me.

I was released on Thursday afternoon but the nurse wouldn't let me out of the room until the bill had been settled. My husband had already paid 1500le and had brought 2000le with him but needed another 800le which was in the apartment. Under no circumstances was I getting out of that room until he came back with my passport in hand. At first I thought that it was very expensive but once I saw the break down of the costs its wasn't expensive at all. 4300le for an operation and two night stay (plus plenty of drugs), the doctors fees and tests.

I'm at home now, recovering slowly. They said it'll take 4-6 weeks. No dog walking or housework for a while for me.

All in all the Nile Hospital is an excellent very modern hospital.