In truth, the dozing is becoming more fitful – I’m building up a tolerance for the codeine so it’s not really dealing with the pain. Meanwhile I have a dull thud where my consciousness used to be.
Right now, I am a perfectly useless human being – I can’t cook, clean, shop, blog, read, write or play poker.
Still, I reckon I’m lucky – all that pain I was ignoring for so long turned out to be a gall stone. Tim Blair’s pain, on the other hand, turned out to be cancer.
It isn't unusual, after you hit 40, to have the occasional unexplained ache, or muscle cramp, or sleepless night, or other types of non-dramatic complaint - though it might be unusual for those things to start happening all at once.But a lot of men don’t. Me included. I’d have still been suffering in silence if I hadn’t been rushed to hospital one night with severe abdominal pains.
That is where I was three months ago. Things got worse, in tiny increments. Within two months - by degrees so small I didn't notice them - sleepless nights sometimes became nights roiled in sweat so drenching I was woken by drops falling across my eyelids.
Previously generalised aches took root in specific areas, and once in a while turned from ache to agony.
At which point any sensible person should have seen a doctor.
Thankfully, Tim's doing fine. Post-op, he's out of hospital and blogging again.
Me, I'm still waiting for a surgical assessment. And once I'm sorted, any pain I get I'm going straight to the doc.
