Oral morpheine, my go-to pain relief at present, tastes pretty awful. This morning at the unsociable hour of 4am, I decided to wash it down with a mouthful of Coke.
Dumb idea.
As the lovely Nurse Zach and delightful Dr Tom prepared me for surgery, with blood tests and platelet transfusion etc. they casually asked about the last time I ate or drank. I confessed to my post-transplant sweet tooth gulp of the ‘black aspirin’ that followed the morpheine and other meds, and they just glared at each other.
Although I was safely within the 5am cutoff time for fasting, Coke wasn’t water or black coffee or cordial which were all permitted beverages. Their faces told me I was in trouble…So much trouble the Anaesthetist came and changed the surgical list. I’d been bumped from position of first cab off the rank.
Now, I sit, I wait. I am grumpy, with a dehydration-related blinding headache. Don’t suppose they’d give me a can of Coke? A sip?




