I was not a very adventurous girl – had no wish to climb trees, disliked p.e., would never have become a parkour fan – never had a broken bone and had never been in hospital (except for giving birth) until I was 64.

We had lived in Broadstairs for about a year when I got a bit of a pain in my tummy. It wasn’t a terrible pain and I thought it would go away on its own but, after a few days of waking up and finding the pain was still there, I decided I should probably go to the doctor. That was the beginning of the surgeries I was to have in the ensuing 18 or 19 years.

It was appendicitis. The doctor sent me to the hospital. There I had various tests and it was decided that I should have my appendix removed straight away. (One of the tests was to see if the pain was being caused by gall stones. Interestingly, I was told that there were “lots and lots and LOTS” of stones in my gall bladder but they weren’t the cause of my pain. I’m still waiting for that!)

I got over the appendicectomy and went back to my normal life when, suddenly, I lost some of the hearing in my right ear. After tests the audiologist decided I should have a grommet put in my ear. I had that done in a day surgery and the only outcome of that surgery was that I couldn’t go swimming for a year or so – which was really annoying! The tiny grommet fell out eventually but my hearing didn’t improve.

Then came a year in which I had two surgeries – my right knee was replaced in June and my left was replaced in December. The first operation went really well and the new knee worked beautifully.

The second operation went well, too, but my wound didn’t heal quite so quickly. That was probably my fault. I am allergic to plasters and there was a big one covering the wound. It itched under the edges but I didn’t touch the plaster. My leg also itched lower down on my shin – and that, I scratched. Somehow, my leg became infected and I had two lots of antibiotics to clear up the infection. My new left knee worked just as well as the other. I’m happy to say that both knees are still working well after 15 years!

Since then I have had various other surgeries: 2 carpal tunnel ops, one on the right hand and the other – ten years or so later – on the left. I’ve recently had the cataracts removed from both eyes. That wasn’t exactly surgery, though they do make an excision to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with a clear lens.

That is the end of the surgeries I have undergone in the past 18 years. I won’t be sorry if I never have another!