Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.
Crashed my Unreal badly and had to reinstall it and learn all about those patches again (still not completely done).
See y'all soon.
@Sparky:
I finally got around to post the image here (selfie), as I promised, of my 39 staples operation.
The staples are still there - they (and the draining tube) were removed a couple of hours before I was discharged.
On the left side of the image (my right side) one can see the draining tube.
It's all a bit swollen - hey, he did practically cut me in half after all.
Never had any pain, just discomfort - spinal tap and my midriff was numbed - great stuff. All OK now as far as I can tell.