HOSPITAL: Right Tonsilectomy

Day visit to have my right tonsil removed. As predicted the anesthetic made me extremely drowsy and then when I tried to get up I felt sick so the nurse gave me anti-nausea drugs which promptly sent me back to sleep again. Eventually got home about 7pm, went straight to bed and slept until 8am.

Overall it was as pleasant as it could be, the nurses were all very nice and so far it doesn't seem too painful, although apparently it gets worse and peaks about a week after the operation.

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Well it did get worse, a whole LOT worse and on Monday night at 1AM I had to wake Rose up to take me to hospital as I was bleeding... what a long night that was and what a long, uncomfortable day it melded into.

We were in A&E until 5AM and by 6AM I was back on the ward, just as everyone was waking up! I had nothing with me but my phone (half charged) and the clothes I'd been wearing the previous day. I didn't want to lay down so I sat in the chair, but I kept nodding off and then they told me I needed to gargle with Peroxide every half an hour - that's not fun either, let me tell you. It tastes foul and as soon as it touches the back of your throat it feels like you are going to chuck up. Thankfully I managed to avoid doing that and it seemed to stop the bleeding, which is good because I was told it was potentially fatal!

So I spent 11 hours watching Yesterday and Top Gear, on a telly that froze for two seconds every thirty seconds, while nurses came and took my blood pressure over and over again, or squirted me full of antibiotics. I eventually decided to try and sleep on the bed but it was so uncomfortable and when I woke up my back was well and truly fucked.

The day was thoroughly miserable, right in the middle of the Corona virus thing as well (I passed isolation cubicles in A&E with patients in)... some poor sods had been on the ward for ten days waiting for an operation because 9 of the 13 theatres had been turned into Covid19 wards.

Was I ever glad to get out of there... and no sooner had I gone home than I went to bed and slept for 15 hours or something. Thankfully after that my mouth started to get better, I'm guessing the infection was the cause of a lot of the pain as once I got the antibiotics it really started to turn around and a week later I was back to work.

MEAL OUT: The Admiral Hornblower (Oakham)

For some reason this meal was overlooked and not entered in the diary... tsk, tsk. Can't honestly remember much about it other than Rose's steak was a bit tough and they took it off the bill. Afterwards we went back to Lee and Su's and played pool while shouting at Alexa to play this, that and the other!

GIG: Exodus & Death Angel - Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Touring Europe with Testament on the 'Bay Strikes Back' tour, Exodus and Death Angel arranged a couple of solo dates on the days Testament wanted as rest days, which saved us a trip to Bristol and the tedium of watching Testament...

The venue was pretty packed and close to sold out, if not actually sold out and we only had about 20 mins to wait from arrival to the start of Death Angel's set. We hadn't seen them since 2003 and they were really good, with a perfect sound.

Exodus sound was a bit less clear and a bit louder (I'm sure the two are not entirely unconnected!) and their set list feels a bit tired now. They really need to start bringing back some of the great songs they never play from 'Pleasures of the Flesh' and 'Fabulous Disaster' and they really need to start playing anything from 'Impact is Imminent'. I never get bored of hearing tracks from 'Bonded by Blood', it's a seminal thrash album, but they have more to offer and I feel like they are selling themselves short by being predictable.

Also 'Deathamphetamine' and 'Iconoclasm' need to fuck off now... they are good songs but live they just drag on and on. Still it was good to see Gary back in the fold now that his gig with Slayer has finished and the impromptu version of 'Princess of the Night' during 'Toxic Waltz' was nearly as funny as the 'Benny Hell / Angel of Death' intro tape.

Easily the best gig of the year so far, but for my money Death Angel stole the show this time.