Thank you for all the support and good wishes. It's hard to define why, but I shall feel more confident knowing that a group of people are thinking kindly of me as I, er, fly off into uncharted territory.
The scary element concerning brain surgery is hard to shake off. While we can see the brain as a kind of super CPU, with people in my situation suffering from a 'broken switch' or two, it's also the container for the entity who calls himself Brando. He has his peculiarities but I've grown used to him over the last 58 years
And I don't want to have to learn to fly all over again!
Thanks too for the advice about treatments. You may be sure that I have explored all sorts of therapies in my search. For the (perhaps irrational) reason mentioned above, this really is a place of last resort for me.
I am indeed an advocate of traditional Chinese acupuncture and I have received much benefit from it over the years, but sadly there is no part of the technique that can touch the core problem of severed nerves. I will certainly look to have a session though, to firm myself for the stay in hospital, and I appreciate the reminder.
I really laughed about the sponge baths! My wife is a nurse, and also a university lecturer in Nursing, and you can be certain that she'll be turning on her 'Matron's eye' if any pretty young nurses turn up carrying sponges. She has the ability to arch one eyebrow, she does a good impression of Spock from Star Trek, and it's almost as scary as brain surgery!
I hope to be around in Hyperlobby over the festive season. I'll be scaling back after then, primarily to get my body clock aligned with GMT rather than transatlantic time. Valda will be emailing Pedro to keep him up-to-date with progress when the time comes.
Thank you all
B