Bravery and fear are not mutually exclusive.

A lot of people would have received such news and immediately abdicated
responsibility for everything unrelated to themselves.  No one would
even blame them for doing so.  You, on the other hand, have gone to
great lengths to make sure your responsibilities (pets and livestock)
are cared for.  You've continued to send out purrs as you found the
time and ability.

Christina, you are a strong woman with a fierce will, and I hope that
you can give yourself the credit for it that you deserve.  

I don't think I'm saying this very well, so maybe I can find a few
quotes to say it better ...

"Courage is being scared to death . and saddling up anyway."
. John Wayne (Marion Morrison), American actor (1907-1979)

"Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil
them to the eyes. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we
grow strong or we grow weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we
have become."
. Brooke Foss Westcott, British theology professor and bishop
(1825-1901)

"One must think like a hero merely to behave like a decent human
being."
. May Sarton, American essayist and novelist (1912-1995)

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that
something else is more important than fear.  ~Ambrose Redmoon

Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at
the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.  ~Mary Anne
Radmacher

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do.  There can be no courage
unless you're scared.  ~Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

When we are afraid we ought not to occupy ourselves with endeavoring
to prove that there is no danger, but in strengthening ourselves to go
on in spite of the danger.  ~Mark Rutherford

Tweed,

Take a look at http://www.le.ac.uk/anaesthesia/lgh.html. It will give
contact information for the anesthesia, pain management, and palliative
care group at that hospital, which is affiliated with the University.
See if you can find out, in advance, about the specialists from that
department that will work with you. As a university-related department,
they may be more open to prior communication than the average hospital
department.

On looking further, there is a pain management clinic in that hospital.
I don't know the local protocols, but a phone call or email shouldn't
cause a problem. They might want a referral from your primary physician,
but, if you think about it, people that specialize in pain management
probably don't want to cause pain.

My Google search on the hospital + pain or palliation gave 716 hits.
Some were specialized scientific articles, but it appears to be a center
of excellence in pain research. Did you have your earlier surgery here?  
If you did, and your pain was uncontrolled, I suspect there are people
in that hospital who would be appalled.

In your contact, it might be useful to mention the late Dame Cicely
Saunders, who is considered the creator of the hospice movement and, not
only for the dying, some of the beginnings of the science of pain
management.  IIRC, she was the physician that introduced the absolute
requirement that drugs for cancer pain MUST be given on a regular
schedule, with supplementary medications for breakthrough.

{{{{Tweed}}}
 From Howard, and also Mr. Clark, who hugs as well as purrs.
 Rhonda and Ding purr, Rhonda takes a glamour pose, and Ding
contemplates the meaning of life. He may be channeling Monty Python, but
as nonfiction.