Of all the timing, I had to have my appendix out on Easter Saturday. I was in the hospital from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening, and what an extremely unusual experience that all was what with no visitors or support people, and many nurses in full PPE.

Because I'd had a fever (normal with appendicitis) I was treated as though I was a plague carrier for the first 6 hours. That wasn't so bad though, as I was put in an isolation room in the ED which was super quiet and I was able to rest. Nurses couldn't enter without full PPE and a good reason though, so when I was lying there feeling very sick and sore, it was really quite hard to be alone. Finally a Dr was willing to to put their name behind clearing me for covid and putting me back in the regular wards, albeit at the end of an empty row of 6 beds with curtains drawn and a sign on the front saying "STAFF USE CONTACT PRECAUTIONS" and a PPE trolley outside.

Saturday morning a lovely surgeon pulled that sign down and wheeled away the PPE trolley and I got people contact again, which was nice.

Tell you what though, after the surgery when I was back in the general surgical ward in a room with 2 other women, I longed for the solitude of that PPE barrier! I am not a fan of 4 person rooms immediately post op. There is no privacy to make the sounds that you feel like you need to make, and other people are so, so, so loud

There was the usual selection of beyond wonderful and absolutely shockingly bad nursing staff. I'm still weighing up a formal complaint for one nurse and junior surgical registrar. I'm going to wait a week or so until some of the emotion has moved on and I can look at it a little clearer. I will say that I'm glad it wasn't a more major procedure, as even going through a relatively minor one without a family member close by, was very, very hard.

Until last night, I hadn't eaten since last Thursday. I'd had no appetite since the initial episode last Weds. My appetite appears to be returning, but my stomach has shrunk! Trying not to eat too much until the digestive effects of all the morphine have resolved... hate that issue. I'm drinking lots of Kiwi Crush in the hopes of getting things moving.

At one point I was keeping track of the number of people who'd been within 1m of me and stopped counting at about 35. I'm trying not to think about it too much. I do know what when I was zoned out, I kept rubbbing my eyes because they were itchy and blurry, sigh.

I hope all of your Easter weekend was much less eventful, and that you saw MUCH less people than I did!