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Before you arrive at the hospital it is a good idea to have a few "entertainment" items with you as life on a ward is one long boring wait.

It's a good idea to save up a few favourite magazines. Try not to read the current issues of your favourites then take them with you on the day. A good book is always recommended although there may well be a hospital library round during your stay (but you can guarantee you've never heard of the books and there are pages missing!). At times like this it is best to steer clear of medical novels like Robin Cook's "Coma"!

A walkman is essential to all younger patients, especially when accompanied with a few of your favourite tapes.

The food in hospital is renowned the world over as being more likely to kill you than help your recovery! Having said that though I never found the food too bad in the hospitals I've stayed in. But it never hurts to smuggle in a few packets of crisps, biscuits, sweets and a bottle of of your favourite diluted drink. A word of warning though, fizzy drinks are best avoided. They cause wind and this could cause you some serious discomfort if you get wind cramp around the stoma.

Besides from this there is only the regular essentials you need take such as pyjamas, dressing gown, slippers, towel, soap, tooth brush, comb, pen (to fill out your menu card!) and most importantly a lucky cuddly toy. From my experience nurses on the ward love to see them.

Usually you'll be asked to arrive the day before the operation, depending on whether your operation is planned for AM or PM. Once on the ward you'll be shown to your bed. As soon as you sit on the bed and hear the back breaking crunch you'll want to go home, but be brave!

After a few minutes your Named Staff Nurse will appear. This nurse is responsible for you while you are in hospital. Although you will see many nurses during your stay, you are officially his or her patient, and they are responsible for booking you in and out, and checking that all your paper work is in order.

First things first. They will take the starter readings of your blood pressure, pulse and temperature (word of warning, try to avoid this for up to an hour after a cup of tea or hot drink, otherwise you'll end up with a really high temperature reading and have nurses panicking all over the ward!). The nurse will then ask you a few questions, including your name, address, next of kin, any known allergies and simple things like that. She'll probably also ask you if you know why you are there - as if you could ever forget! But it is a legitimate question for the elderly patients.

Once she's completed the paper work, you'll have a patient wrist band attached to your wrist, maybe even to your ankle as well. This simply tells them your name, Consultant's name, hospital number and ward you are placed. If you've mentioned any known allergies you'll have an extra red plastic wrist band clearly stating these.

Finally the nurse will place a sign on your bed headboard saying "fasting". That is the worst bit of hospital life. Because of the anaesthetic you are not allowed any food or drink before the operation and you have to sit and watch everyone else tucking into their meals. The other patients may be slagging the food off, but the longer you do without food the more appetising it looks!

Once this has all been completed the Nurse will ask the Houseman - this is the Ward Doctor - to come and have a chat with you. This will be the first of many visits by a whole variety of Doctors up and down the scale of authority.

The doctor will ask you a few more questions which relate more to your condition rather than the Nurses questions about whether you have stairs in your house or not!

You'll be ask to give brief details of your condition, to describe any pains you may have, past illnesses and once again you'll be asked if you know what you've gone into hospital for. The Houseman will be furiously writing everything you say down in the famous doctor's scribble that will be totally illegible to you if you ever got to see it!

Then the doctor will want to examine you. He or she will check your pulse, listen to your heart whilst getting you to breath in and out, having you lying down, sitting up, coughing, moving your eyes and various other little tests. It all seems fairly pointless but it is important that everyone is satisfied that your are fit enough to undergo surgery and that the anaesthetic will cause you no problems.

Finally, once all that is over the Houseman will want to take a sample of your blood. This is so that the operating theatre has plenty of your blood type ready and waiting for the operation.

While in the mood for needles the Doctor may well take the opportunity to insert a Cannula into the back of your hand. This is a long plastic, needle like tube that sits in your vein during the majority of your stay and is taped to your hand. All you'll see of it is the capped off plastic nozzle that rests on you hand. It's main purpose is acting as the entrance of the initial anaesthetic, for any drips that may be necessary and for the post operative anti-biotics. This one needle saves you a whole host of other needle pricks as all the syringes will fit into the nozzle.

At some point before the operation you will be requested to sign a form of consent, unless you are under the age of sixteen then the responsibility falls on your parent or legal guardian. Before asked to sign you will be made aware of what the operation entails, how they plan to do it and any risks that there may be. You should have already have been told all of this information by the surgeon himself anyway when you first saw him and he told you that you needed the Colostomy, so there should be no shocks in what the Houseman has to say.

This piece of paper work is vital. Once you've signed it you have given permission for the surgeon to operate. Without the signature the surgeon cannot even examine you let alone operate.

Your Stoma Nurse may pop in to see you, just to check everything is okay and that you are still happy with the positioning with the Stoma site since the last time you were together. If it doesn't happen on day one you will certainly see him or her on day two before the operation.

And that is pretty much your first day. Although you'll have been sitting on a bed for the majority of the day you'll undoubtedly feel tired and drained. You'll look forward to a good nights sleep, and you'll hardly be disturbed by the night life on the ward. Just before the lights go out the nurse will call around to take your blood pressure, pulse and temperature again.