This way out

We heard last night that the Intensive Care Unit was chocker block and the operation to remove my friend's cancer today may not go ahead. She went into hospital yesterday morning and was texting me some delights about the colourful characters she was sharing her ward area with. I was looking forward in a way to putting names to faces.

This morning, I got in early in the hope that the operation would go ahead before 9am but at 7.30am they had heard no news and were still waiting for a bed to free up.

The surgeons visited early and were ready to go. She was sent for an anaesthetic shower, was all marked up with arrows and was joking that it would not go down well if they took part of someone else's tongue out by mistake!

Their cut off point, because of the length of the operation, was 10am. We whiled away the time with our usual toilet humour and giggled a lot.

Various nurses came by with no news. 10am came and went. At 10.20, the ward sister brought the bad news. Still no beds. Delayed until next week.... As long as.

Sent home.

This is a big disappointment but I guess all part of the hospital process... someone else was simply in need of serious care. A week is a long time of waiting but at least we'll be back from hols for Part II of The Waiting Games.