Well, I had my TURBT cancer surgery on Monday afternoon.  The operation was relatively short since I went into theatre at 3.45 and woke up at 4.45. The surgeon visited me afterwards to say that the removed growth was very tiny, just a few millimetres, but what happens next will depend on what the pathologist finds.  So far so good. 

Then it went downhill a little bit, because they wanted to be sure that my kidneys and bladder were working OK, so I had to pee a certain amount, but alas that just wasn't happening. I ended up drinking several litres of water before my waterworks kicked back into life - but eventually things started flowing and I was released at 10.30pm!  I was completely bowled over by the level of care and dedication of everyone involved, doctors and nurses. Everyone was very kind and caring. 

I'd probably become too dehydrated during the wait, and it's something I'll mention next time I need surgery. Drinking so much plain water was quite difficult because it was only slowly absorbed from the stomach. Next time I'll bring some oral rehydration salts with me and I'll ask whether it's possible to add them to the water to speed up absorbtion. 

I also had a problem because my salivary glands had completely stopped working and I could only talk or eat whilst drinking lots of water. (I'd had this same problem after my previous operation, too, and they'd restarted a day later).  However, for the journey home I bought some Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles to chew, and they restarted my salivary glands so by the time I got home (about 30 mins later) they were working.

All so far so good.  But now I have an issue.

I started hiccupping soon after I arrived home, and I've been troubled by hiccup attacks all yesterday.  By holding my breath or drinking water through a straw I can usually stop an attack but it restarts within 30 minutes to an hour.  I did some web searching and found some references to people rarely having hiccup attacks after surgery, presumably because the nerves have been irritated by the tube down the throat, but no indication how long this lasts.

Has anyone any experience of this? How long did it last? And I suppose now's a good time to ask for how you stop an attack of the hiccups, or do you just wait for the attack to wear off?