Your operation was cancelled. The gown is still on, the bag is still packed, and nobody has told you what happens next. This short, practical book is for the hours after that moment. It explains what a cancellation usually is and is not, who to call first and what to say, how to ask about keeping your place on the list, and how to hold onto a record that makes every following conversation shorter. It also takes the night seriously, including the 2am loop of questions and the fear that calling in the morning will make you look demanding. It will not tell you whether to have surgery, will not answer clinical questions, and will not pretend a cancellation is nothing. Those answers belong to your surgical team, your anaesthetist, and your GP, and this book says so plainly. What it gives you instead is a script, a folder, a set of questions, and a clear list of symptoms that mean contacting the team or emergency services today.
