After a short wait in the waiting area we were ushered upstairs to the 8th floor of Hahnemann University Hospital. I was shown to my bed and the curtains were pulled around. My first thoughts were “This is serious”. Then the first of a seemingly endless line of people came and asked me all the usual questions – name, date of birth, what I’m here for. After about the fourth one, I was introduced to the first of the Anaesthesia team who asked the same questions, then the second and finally the third. The second, Christine, then inserted the cannula after her third attempt. I was then allocated a Prep nurse called Jan who explained what was going to happen next. Christine came back and gave me a shot of what she called a sedative. Denise and I said our goodbyes at 8.10am and I was wheeled into the Pre-Op area. I don’t remember arriving there, in fact the next thing I remember was someone calling “Stephanie, are you with us”. Now after 56 years of answering to Robin it took me a while to cotton on that they were talking to me through my anaesthesia haze but eventually I opened my eyes to find lots of people around the bed. The next thing I remember was being put in a lift up to the 17th floor and taken to my room. When Denise wasn’t there I asked someone to call her – she was sitting all the while in a Waiting room on the 9th floor; no-one had told her I was out of surgery. The time by now was about 1.30pm. The rest of the day was spent drifting in and out of sleep.