"That appendix is nasty. It needs to come out."

My doctor had already prepared the operating theater. Now she was preparing me for the operation.

"Will it hurt?" I asked.

"Not by the time we get all these lovely drugs into your system," she replied.

And she was right. I didn't feel a thing, as my soul floated up to the ceiling. I looked down on the scene below. The surgeon--my doctor--stared at me for a moment, then plunged the knife into my stomach.