Period: November 2010
Surgery was scheduled for the following Monday and, having been in hospital for over a week, I was feeling much better so I begged the doctors to discharge me for the weekend. They agreed but I had to sign a disclaimer just in case anything should happen to me. My friends had been staying in a B&B next door and two other friends came to join us in Thames for the weekend. As chance would have it, one of their parents had just arrived in NZ too and we all had a lovely time.
I think this was really the onset of the loneliness for me. While everyone else went on a challenging walk on the Saturday afternoon, I stayed behind and brooded on my misfortune and stubbornness. Pretending to the world that everything was fine had become extremely difficult and the constant worry was a real drain. Until I knew exactly what was happening with my surgery, I didn't even inform my family back home that I was in hospital, I didn't wan't to worry them unnecessarily. During that weekend, I remember sitting around with everyone in the evening sunshine and, whenever I experienced painful stomach cramps, I would try to disguise it and this overwhelming sense of isolation would sweep over me as I watched everyone around me enjoying themselves.
The surgery went fine and I was delighted to discover my prescriptions cost less than half what they did in the UK! We left Thames just a couple of days after the operation, to continue our grand camping tour of the North. In all honesty, I was not ready for it, however I felt extremely guilty for holding my friends back and extremely grateful that they had stayed with me while in hospital - the B&B hadn't been cheap and I knew they were on a tight budget like me.
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