May 2013 - an unexpected call

So after that fateful Friday (which was also our wedding anniversary), when we found out that I had a Pituitary tumour we kicked off a bank holiday weekend, and incredibly we were facing a lovely sunny weekend. My wife had grand plans for us to do a mega-weekend of gardening and I was looking forward to a relaxing 3-day break. Saturday went to plan and we had sat down to our traditional pizza Saturday dinner when at about 7pm the phone rang.

"Hello is that Mr. Carlton Hall" said a very serious lady on the phone. Well yes it is I replied. "Has anyone spoken to you today about coming into Wessex Neurological Unit tomorrow for an operation on Monday" she casually asked. I nearly dropped the phone in disbelief, I had the phone on speakerphone, my wife was equally shocked. I asked her to repeat what she said, and in the end I pursuaded her to get the registrar to ring me to explain further.

The plan that had been initially laid out by Dr. Kar was following the confirmation of the tumour, which incidentally was almost guaranteed to be benign, was that I would get an appointment with the surgeon who would outline the risks and benefits of the surgery and ultimately get an appointment to go to hospital. I hadn't planned for this to happen within 24 hours of seeing Dr. Kar.

The registrar duly rang me back about 8pm and explained that because of the impact on my optic nerve the surgeon had decided that immediate action was required to save my sight. It seems odd looking back on it now, but my wife and I were really put out that our planned relaxing bank holiday weekend was going to be ruined. In fact, what was happening was the NHS swinging into action to get me fixed up, and of course we realised this and accepted their appointment.

So at 8pm on Sunday 26th May, we walked into D-Neuro ward at Wessex Neurological Unit at Southampton General Hospital. What followed was a very scary few days for me, my first stay in hospital and what did I go in for, a bit of light brain surgery. Yikes!