Earlier I wrote about my reasons for deciding to have an operation to sterilise me.
The job is done now and I have the wounds to prove it. Well, I say wounds. It's all very well having no huge scar on an otherwise body-beautiful (!), but the two minuscule, perfect stitches, one in my belly button, the other right on my bikini-line, annoyingly give no indication of the pain they inflict.
Female sterilisation is a minor operation. I arrived at the hospital at 7am and was tottering somewhat gingerly to the car to head home at midday. The staff were kind and professional and I certainly felt in very good hands. That all said, it is, nevertheless, an operation under a full anaesthetic. If you are under any illusions as to what that means for your body they will be allayed by the time you wake up.
It wasn't pain really. Jack Bauer would have laughed in its face. And we know pain do we not? We have given birth have we not? So no, it's not pain as such. It would probably be described in the pre-operative blurb as post-operative "discomfort". Yes that's it.
Discomfort. I can deal with a bit of discomfort. What I really wasn't prepared for was the appalling and unimaginable desire to fart whilst being frustratingly unable to do so!
It's the gas apparently. The fill your abdomen up with it, clamp your tubing and close you up leaving it in there with no means of escape. Now, that, right there ladies, is discomfort. It locates itself between your shoulder blades, in your chest and even under your ribs and it lasts for days!
When that goes away though, everything is fine. Well, the stitches are a bit of a nuisance but they cannot be compared to the wind issue.
On a more serious note, having this no-going-back surgery has kicked up a few unexpected emotions. Before the operation I was focusing on the actual procedure. Now, sitting here with a bruised tummy and being brought copious cups of tea by my lovely husband, I have time to reflect.
Whilst I have absolutely no regrets and am really rather relieved to have it over and done with, I can't suppress a small feeling of poignancy. Like I've come to the end of an era.
Read the writer's reasons for choosing sterilisation here.