Believe me, Kate must NOT rush back after this surgery

POOR Kate. Yes, in many ways she has a gilded life. She lives in palaces, surrounded by priceless art and has servants and assistants. She is beautiful, elegant and has money. The great and the good fall at her feet.

But health is a great leveller. When you’re ill, none of that really matters. While the Palace has assured people that her abdominal surgery was for a non-cancerous issue, a two-week admission, even in a private hospital, is unusual. So it’s not presumptuous to assume it’s something quite serious.

That is hugely stressful for anyone, let alone a mother of three small children. What a horrible thing to have to endure.

The Palace has said she’ll be taking time off official duties until Easter and on this, I think she’s incredibly sensible.

We don’t know what’s wrong or why she needed the operation, but Kate has always struck me as quite down-to- earth, levelheaded and stoical, so I’m sure she wouldn’t have heeded medical advice and taken that much time off unless really necessary.

ABDOMINAL surgery is serious. of course, there’s always someone who will tell you how they had a hysterectomy in their lunch break, or their appendix removed while on the school run. But in reality we should all be taking a leaf out of Kate’s book and convalescing properly.

I, too, have recently had abdominal surgery — like Kate, in a private hospital — and, looking back, wish I’d appreciated how major my operation was and taken the time needed to recover.

Mine was for a hernia, which isn’t life-threatening — it’s where a part of the bowel protrudes through a weak spot in the abdominal muscles into the groin — although the surgeon was worried it might become strangulated (where the bowel loses blood supply and dies).

I had keyhole surgery, which I erroneously thought meant the process would be minor. I’ve worked in surgery and really should have known better. my surgeon tried to explain it simply meant the scars would be small, but the operation itself was still serious, even though I’d only be in hospital for a day or so. Ha! How I dismissed his warnings.

By coincidence, two of my neighbours had similar operations. I’d bumped into one only a week after he was discharged and he was out for a jog. How serious can it really be? I asked myself. I’ll be up and running around the next day.

I was mistaken. The operation involved dissecting the muscles from my belly button into my groin, pulling the wayward bowel back into place and sewing a mesh in place to patch up the holes.

I was so sure I’d be fighting fit after the op I arranged to meet friends for lunch the very next day and told work I’d do a few calls and only needed a couple days off before I’d be back in person.

The moment I woke up from the anaesthetic, I realised this had been a mistake.

While some have the operation as a day case, everyone is different. due to complications, I ended up staying in hospital for two days and unfortunately went into urinary retention (meaning I couldn’t pee) and it took six weeks before my bladder went back to normal.

But what I’d failed to appreciate was that the pain, discomfort and tenderness meant I could hardly walk for a week. and when I did, the discomfort was such that I couldn’t walk upright.

I had to wear loose tracksuits for three weeks. I usually wear smart trousers to work which would have been too uncomfortable. Just the thought still makes me wince, let alone the fact that without my usual uniform — my armour, if you will, that gives us the courage to face the world — I felt on the back foot.

Heaven help me if I’d been royalty like Kate whose every outfit is scrutinised!

On the surgeon’s insistence I had to call work and explain that, in fact, I’d have to take a few weeks off — and he banned me from the gym for six months. Six months! He made me promise to spend a full three weeks resting at home, which I dutifully did and when I returned to work, I was surprised at how tired and weak I felt.

Interestingly, shortly afterwards, I bumped into the neighbour who’d been so gung-ho when I met him jogging straight after his operation. He looked sheepish. He’d burst his stitches and had had to go back into hospital just after I’d seen him.

We seem to have lost the art of convalescence — of taking time to allow our bodies to heal. Skipping this part of illness does nobody any favours.

It means we often feel unwell for longer, and increases the risks of complications. It doesn’t help our minds, either. We need to allow ourselves time to get both physically and mentally back up to speed. So many of us are guilty of rushing back to work too quickly.

ENERGY drinks could raise the risk of heart problems and depression. Studies involving 1.2 million children concluded they increased the risk of most mental health problems and led to suicidal thoughts. If Lithuania and Latvia have banned these drink sales to under-18s, why haven’t we?

WE KEEP going, labouring under the belief that we should just soldier on. I think a lot of this is because, in our frenetic, fastpaced modern lives, we refuse to believe that recovering from an illness takes the time it actually does. We tell ourselves: a few days and that should be it.

Getting better was once part of being ill. now it’s just assumed that with wishful thinking and gritted teeth you’ll be right as rain. People are genuinely perplexed when it takes longer.

I hope Kate makes a speedy recovery, but also hope she doesn’t return to duties until she’s good and ready.