A CUT ABOVE

There comes a time in everyone's life when you can't just shake off aches and pains anymore. It's around the same time you start needing to say 'hnnnggggh' every time you stand up. I came across this point last year when my doctor's eyebrows furrowed with concern rather than a quick dismissal. A few tests and scans later and I'm on a waiting list for surgery.

- By Daniella Lucas

Luckily for me it's nothing too worrying, but needing to go to hospital and go under the knife is always going to be scary. "Don't worry," my specialist told me. "It's a simple surgery..." But of course I am worrying and have stew in it for months while I wait. So, to help take my mind off of things I turned to videogames and an idea hit me. "What if I did a test run by performing my own surgery? Preparing myself will ease my fears..." And so I put on my latex gloves (after washing my hands of course) and picked up Surgeon Simulator. It's been almost 12 years since Bossa Studios brought medical mishaps to the world with the opportunity to get your hands stuck into a comically grotesque world of surgery. Taking on the role of a surgeon, you need to control their hand one finger at a time to pick up the right tools to free organs from chest cavities before your patient, Bob, bleeds out on the table. Bossa has done a follow up game, Surgeon Simulator 2, that homes in on the chaos of the process and ups the ante by adding co-op and more challenges in the operating theatres, but the first game offers the purer experience I need to emulate my own surgery.

Luckily for Bob he doesn't have ovaries like I do so I have to make do and opt for the closest comparable organs I can - the kidneys. Both come in pairs, can cause unexpected pains on a semi regular basis, and both are hidden behind the spaghetti that makes up the intestines. In real life I'm having a dermoid cyst the size of an orange cut from one ovary as well as some misbehaving tubing removed, but Bob needs a full on swapsies with a transplant.