Just Stories

Since my surgery, I've had a few random stories floating around in my head to share with you here.  Maybe you'll be bored and leave before the end and that's okay too.  I'll try not to be long winded...


Anecdote # 1- The day after my surgery, I was able to come home.  Brian was in my room helping me to put some clothes on so that I could take my wheelchair ride to the car in style. As I was removing my hospital gown, I glanced down at my abdomen only to notice a 2 inch square thingy adhered to my skin!  If that weren't odd enough...smack in the middle of that square was a bright shiny silver snap head.  Wha?  I'd been snapped?  I have no idea why it was there. Brian's response was "Well, that's new" ha-ha.  
After a little research...It turns out that the snap was probably a connection for a heart monitor or some sort of AED device.  

Anecdote #2- Two days later, as I was laying in my own very comfortable bed.  It occurred to me that I woke up from surgery in a different hospital gown from the very cool  heat blowing hospital gown that I entered surgery wearing.  That means...at some point, I was very exposed!  As in N_ _ _ _ ! This thought raised another few questions...how many people were around? Was I like that during the surgery? Was I like that after the surgery?  Surely, it took more than one person to heave my hurking frame from the operating table to the gurney, so that means...more than one person saw me!! A lot of me, for that matter!  Waaay too much of me.   I am embarrassed now just writing about it 6 weeks later!! I know, I know...to them its just a body, they see it everyday...blah, blah, blah.  I don't care what they see everyday and if they view it as "just a body" or what!  The point is, they don't see ME every day!! ...and that's really all this is about...me & nakedness.   Two words I do not like to see together in a sentence. 


Anecdote #3 - One day as I was lying in bed "recovering", Emily came in to lay on the bed with me.  She gently climbed up and rested her head on the pillow next to mine, then she turned her head and looked at my neck (which for some reason she called my elbow).  She leaned over closer and said...Eeew Mama, you need a kleenex, you have boogers!  "No, I said "that's not boogers, its just some icky yellow medicine that I have to put on my neck."   She leaned in closer with a very serious little face and said "ummmm, no, thats icky Mama, you have boogers, you NEED a kleenex!"  And off she went to get me a Kleenex .  A few minutes later she came back into the room with my Mom in tow.  "Do you need a Kleenex? " Mom said  "Emily came saying something about Mama needing a Kleenex".   It was so funny. She was thoroughly convinced and dearly concerned that I had boogers smeared all over my neck!  It was really just Bacitracin ointment that I had to keep my incision slathered in for the first week or so. 


Anecdote #4 - One afternoon, Titus came to lay on the bed next to me.  He looked over at me and asked "Mama, are you dead yet?"  (wha?)  "No," I calmly answered, "I'm laying here resting so that I can get better".  He then, sat up and leaned over me, looking very serious and said "No, you're dying, I can tell, you look bad".  I tried to explain that sometimes you look bad when you're getting better, but he wasn't buying it.  In his mind, I guess someone who looked as bad as I did couldn't be getting better.  I was dying, that was the only explanation.  Well, thankfully my recovery wasn't based on the conclusions of my four year old because 6 weeks later I am feeling and  looking better.  Just the other day, during our Family Bible reading time, Titus prayed and thanked God that "Mama got her pipes out". lol, so funny!
It was so interesting to see how each of the different ages of my kids responded and dealt with my surgery and recovery.  Clearly, they were all very different!  :)