From My Mind to....

Surgery Complete

I'm back having survived my surgery. I got a good report from the surgeon. But the Pathology results won't be available for a week or so. The Next New worry is coming quickly, I suppose.

A couple of things that occurred to me during my 4-day stay in the hospital.

The first thing: hospital food is to die for. I mean it--it will kill you. The only way I could survive was not to eat it. The juices, ice cream and fruit cups were good. At least they allowed food to be brought in. The McDonald's cheeseburger tasted fabulous.

Of course, there's the part about this nurse or that aide coming in every two hours to take vitals. That is true. Of course, to help keep me awake, I administer the drugs every 15 minutes by pressing a pump. I could just press button repeatedly. But they told me if I did press it repeatedly, the machine would lose track. True? False?  Who knows?

Since I've never been hospital before I really had no frame of reference when asked something like "what's your pain level right now on a scale of one to ten. I figured five would be average. Since I seem to have a high tolerance for pain, I used five a lot. I think it bugged the nurses a bit.

Finally, after all the cutting and stitching and food and pain, I never got "the ride" in a wheelchair. Every procedure my wife experiences merits a ride in a wheelchair. I'm waiting in the hospital entryway with the two bags of personal item and things the staff let us take. I'm not allowed to carry these bags--medial restriction, which she knows. She drives up and starts honking the horn for me to get into the car. I tell the big guy next to me that she forgot I can't carry anything weighing more than 10 lbs. He picked up the bags walked with me to the car.

I've never been one to dwell on melancholy. But I have to say my anxiety level has been pretty high; it's likely to remain high until I hear the pathology report and know what to do about my life.