Stones on the beach

More words than pictures this week, but I hope you enjoy this story, part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday.

We sat on the 'green' at Dieppe waiting for the time to come round to go and get on the ferry back to England. We had spent two lovely weeks in the South of France and were feeling relaxed and happy. We had a picnic and some lovely cakes from the local patisserie - full of cream and very rich. Ben and Hugh walked to the beach and Ben loved the stones there and gathered up a few to take home and put on our garden.

Ben and Hugh on the 'green' (don't you just love Ben's shell suit - so 80's!)

Eventually we loaded the children into their car seats and drove off to the port. As we sat in the queue to get on the ferry I was suddenly struck with the most horrendous pain in my stomach. Hugh could tell that I was really ill and pulled the car over to the information kiosk and in his best schoolboy French explained that his wife was ill and needed a doctor.

The next thing we new the Pompier's were there in their ambulance and I was loaded onto a trolley in the back and off we roared. I was not strapped onto the trolley and they took the corners very fast and I hung onto the side of the van for dear life! What I didn't know was that Hugh was trying to follow them - they had the sirens on and he was trying to keep up! Eventually we arrived at Dieppe General Hospital. I was taken into casualty and Hugh staggered in with a 2 year old in one arm and a 4 month old in the other! I was examined in a cursory manner and handed a thermometer. I looked at Hugh and whispered 'what do I do with this?' He suggested I put it under my armpit as we weren't sure where it had been! The staff didn't speak any English and after about an hour the pain had gone and they said it was probably indigestion.

We went back to the port and caught a ferry back to England.

I continued to have a very upset digestive system for two weeks and pain which came and went - never as severe as the day in Dieppe. Hugh decided enough was enough and took me to see the GP. She immediately sent me to A&E to be examined. They prodded and poked my stomach area and thought I might have gallstones. They needed to admit me and scan me to make sure. The prodding and poking seemed to have aggravated me and within an hour I was in such pain I needed pethidine (and I had managed to have two children by natural childbirth with only gas and air as a painkiller, so it was a really bad pain!).

Anyway, the outcome was that I did have gallstones - the cream in the cakes on the beach had triggered a stone passing which was the pain I had been in. I ended up having my gallbladder removed. As Hugh was a  product manager of endoscopes and new the best surgeons in the 'business' I had it done endoscopically in the early years of gallbladders being removed this way by one of the top surgeons in the country!

My gallbladder had been full of hundreds of small stones, which I was given in a tube when I left hospital! Penny's Godmother, Elizabeth, who had been absolutely wonderful during the time I was suffering attacks of gallstones is a science teacher. When she saw the gallstones she was fascinated and as I didn't really need them (what would I do with them!) I asked if she would like them for her science class and she said yes! To this day she uses them in biology classes! My only regret is that I have no photograph of them as I wasn't into scrapbooking then!

The four of us towards the end of the holiday, before I got ill! (That is Ben's smile btw!)

This story is brought to you courtesy of Sian's Storytelling Sunday. Please pop over to her blog to find the links to many more wonderful photos and stories.