I'm back!

Sort of at least. I gave myself a hernia last autumn and was operated on to get it fixed on Wednesday. Though I've done lots of stuff over the last several months, I've realised since the operation that I was getting through each day by a sheer act of will. And then collapsing exhausted.

So despite having some pain from having been cut open (especially when I cough) I feel so much better. And happy. I just seem to have been miserable for ages. So maybe I can get remotivated for Policy Police.

The National Health Service was interesting. In many ways it's still the same dysfunctional, hierarchical, inflexible organisation it always was. I found out why so many people are getting discharged in the middle of the night. Operation complete. Target met. So then once its past 5 o'clock, it's down to you to find the one junior doctor who's on call for the whole place so you can be let go. Luckily I have a bossy wife, so I got out at 9.30pm.

There was an amusing episode that shows how little has changed culturally since the "Doctor in the House" books and movies of the 1950s. I was initially spoken to by a young surgeon who said that he would normally carry out this operation, but as he was on call, I would either get another (named) surgeon or the Great Man himself. As I was being prepped by the anaesthetist and his team, the Great Man walked in and shook my hand. I knew it was the Great Man because he didn't introduce himself. He then barked a series of questions at me along the lines of, "Why are you here? How long have you had this thing?" I think I gave the right answers cuz I definitely felt I'd have been told off if I'd got them wrong. He then turned to the two terrified-looking students behind him and said, "Now YOU ask him some questions!" and left the room. As soon as he'd gone, they turned to the anaesthetist and said, "Do you have any students?"

Well, he may tyrannise his students, but he did a grand job.