Gall today, gone tomorrow...

"Great!"

I realised that this was the worst possible place for this to happen...

There are just over 200km between Karratha and Port Hedland in WA, and I was just over half way! I had flown from Perth to Karratha the day before, then taken a hire car on a short trip to Port Hedland. There was only about 100km where I would have no communication coverage by phone. Pretty safe...

I started to feel the pain that put me in hospital with a suspected heart attack just before Christmas. It was gall bladder pain. It started as an uncomfortable bloating feeling, and then the tell-tale blood pressure headache... Bugger!

The pain was quite acute, sharp but not in any specific area. I stopped driving, jumped up and down, beat my chest, hummed loudly, did anything I thought would dislodge the stone which I knew was stuck fast in my bile duct. Actually, now that I type this, I can just imagine the image people had as they drove bye...

Anyway, I rang the surgeon who had seen me when the stones were first discovered, and he told me to beat a path to his door the next morning. I was bumped up the waiting list hugely. Apparently there is a 1 in 2,000 risk of the complications of small gall stones causing fatality, and only a 1 in 200,000 chance of fatality after the surgery.

So, wish me luck! I go under the knife today!