The first time I was relatively active minded I like to know lots about everything. It was interesting seeing what they do and people flitting around you and you are the centre of attention and I always like being the centre of attention [laughs]. It didn't trouble me, my father was, as I say, horrified, you know, the thought of me being, laying there awake. But somehow, it seemed to me as less of a big deal, even though you'd find that difficult to believe with surgeons and hammering going on every minute, but it seemed somehow, because I've spent most of my life lying on my back, while doctor's pulled this and pushed this that way and the other way.

It seemed like less of a, less of an operation, more of a procedure then, if I had it done that way. It is difficult to getting in, the spinal in the first place, you have to curl up in the fetal position and that can be of difficult. And you're always under the threat, and it was threat to me of, if they can't get it in, if they can't find the right space in the spine for it, then you have to have a general anaesthetic. They have to put you to sleep and that was always a, as I say, a threat for me. 

But no as I say, the last, the first two, it was you know relatively trouble free. It varies a little bit from time to time. The first time I was a little bit worried because I could wiggle my toes and I'm lying on the operating table and I said, 'I can wiggle my toes, is the OK? Does that mean I'm gonna, you know, they're gonna cut into me and I'm gonna feel it?' 'No, no, that's fine.' Just depends on how much of the juice they give you. 

But the second time, I was literally paralysed I couldn't move a thing and it really, it's not a very pleasant feeling at all, you know. You trying to move your foot and it just won't move. So that was a bit unsettling. But the first two were fine. The last two, I had believe or not, some pain 'cos they put a, I presume they still limit the blood flow, they put a tourniquet on the top of the thigh and obviously towards the end of the operation, and particularly on the last operation, where they, because my bones are so soft they broke my leg, and obviously they had to put a nail in my leg and that too longer. So I think the epidural was literally was running out. So it was, not stabbing pain but more of a dull ache, that wasn't very pleasant, the last twice, toward the end of the operation.