Sister Number 3

Last Tuesday Hanna and I dutifully went over to Addenbrookes Hospital for a 7 am start in the operating theatre only to be told that we weren't on the list until the afternoon. Some people might have blown a fuse at that point but we were really grateful for a reprieve. A mastectomy is quite a big deal, and we needed more sleep. Hanna was eventually rolled away at 5 pm and didn't reappear for 3 hours; just about the longest three hours of my life.

After one night in hospital, (phones ringing, instruments beeping and an infernal air mattress that kept setting off an alarm all night) she was more than ready to come home, but it took all day to get discharged (an unfortunate term, I always think). The nurse handling the paperwork ended her shift and left us in the lurch so it was quite late on Wednesday when we got away home with our wee bag of painkillers and dangling a plastic drain bottle at the end of a tube, concealed in a floral bag. Generally, nothing much to complain about though. Thank-you NHS.

The district nurse popped round daily to check on the dressings and the drain which she yanked out on Saturday. (Ouch!).

Subsequently some fluid has bubbled up under the skin so we were a bit worried about infection. We went back to see the surgeon yesterday and he was reassuring. Its called a seroma and might take 6 weeks to clear, but a bit of swelling is normal when you have a foot long slice cut into you. It hurts though because the skin is pulled quite tight.

Susy, the youngest of the three Kist sisters, arrived from Maine yesterday to take over the laundry duties at our house. At the end of Katy's visit we actually ran out of laundry to wash; a first for us. Our friend Judith "Bubbles" Arnold sorted the ironing for us as well.

Our son Dan has been behaving very well, which is a relief because I do the night duties. He's awake for three hours or so a night, but, as I'm off work, I go back to bed for a couple of hours on most days and then do chores with Susy until Dan comes home from school.

Nick started work at a print studio on Monday, making calendars and dairies for German schools. I knew that GCSE in German would come in handy one day. His poster for Don't Panic Magazine appeared on the London Underground today. It looks brilliant.