Thanks guys, that "Hospital Sock 101" was interesting David, I had red socks put on me for the bariatric surgery and the TURP in 2018, but the facial reconstruction in 2019 was a day procedure, albeit 6 hours in the operating room, but no red socks.
I've just changed my flight and accommodation bookings to 2 weeks from Thursday, and sent Gill (the PO of my BMW) a text to let him know. He probably won't read it for a day or two so I hope he's OK with it, but I was very close to the time limit for cancelling without losing lots of dough. That means that I'm going to miss the Z1 50th anniversary weekend in Dubbo, which pisses me off, but the thought of going thru this pain again, on my own, and miles from home helped me make the decision. It is a biggie, but sh1t happens, I'll just suck it up.
I've emailed my bariatric surgeon who was monitoring some lumps in my liver, to see if she can give me some advice on how to manage the stone over the next few days, I'd really like to get it sorted ASAP.