Ross and I wake early and chat about what is to happen today. I’m booked into the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, North London in order that they can give me a bone biopsy of the naughty vertebrae.

I was due to be there for 7am, so at 6am we were on our way down the A1. That road at that time is horrible. There are idiots around at that time. It is very dark, and everyone seems to need to be very close to the car in front. Talk about making a stressful situation more stressful than in needs to be! I’m so glad I don’t have to do that journey often.

Ross dropped me off at the main doors, and went off to find a parking space. This hospital is very quirky. All corridors seem to be off a very sloped corridor. It’s just odd. Also, because of the nature of the hospital, everyone has mobility problems, which means everyone thinks they have priority over everyone else. This makes for some hilarious stand offs. Who goes first? The patient in the bed, the one in the wheelchair, the one on crutches or the one with one leg.

Ten minutes later, we were on the ward which I had been instructed to go to only to be told that there was no record of me on their list for that day. More letters were produced, I turned my humour up a notch (it was either that or cry), and the relevant information was found and I was taken to another ward where my name was on the list.

We had thought that the bone biopsy was to be done under local anaesthetic and that we would be out of the hospital quite quickly. As it turns out, after a discussion with a very nice Anaesthetist, it is revealed that it was all to be done under a General. This means they have to go through my medical history and current medication list. This takes some time, but it gives me a chance to explain that I don’t tolerate GA’s very well and this gives her enough information to make sure that she gives me plenty anti-sickness drugs. Once all this is done, the porter is ready to take me down to the imaging unit. The biopsy that they are doing is being done using a CT scanner so they can have maximum accuracy when taking samples out with needles. No one really wants to guess when you are dealing with the spine and nerves!

Ross accompanies me down to the imaging unit, helps me change into a gown, and after a chat with the doctor who is doing the procedure, it’s not long before he’s despatched back to our ward and I’m in lying down having cannula’s inserted and the drugs are administered.

What feels like five seconds later, I’m awake and before long I’m back on the ward with Ross. I’m anxious to get my painkillers back on the go, and thanks to a wonderful nurse, we are given the permissions we need and I’m feeling more at ease with the world.

The journey home happens in a whirl. Helen, one of the wonderful ladies I met online through the Breast Cancer Care November Newbie 2013 support forums, organised for a charity Sent With Love to send me a beautiful handmade blanket.

The blanket is the perfect size for me to take with me to hospital, to remind me of home. The children had been given instructions to have the blanket around them whenever they can so they can get their smell on it. (The nice after bath, clean smells, not the slightly cabbagy school smell). This blanket is rolled up and used as a pillow and before long, Ross has got me home.

I am so tired, Dad gives me my tea early, and off I go to bed. The drugs alarms are all set, so I don’t have to worry about forgetting anything and that’s that. Night night. Off to sleep and a new day tomorrow.

Jx