Getting There, Post-Surgery

Recovering from the surgery/operation/procedure has been slower than I would have liked, but not as bad as it could have been, I'm sure. I spent all of Saturday on the couch, with brief stints lying down, and no energy to even shower. The Sunday morning shower felt great, but I'm still wobbly and not up for much.

The silver lining, I guess, is that at least today, the time change hasn't hurt me, since I've barely known the time at any point since getting to the hospital on Friday morning. I'm sure I'll hate it when the alarm goes off in the morning, though.

In terms of the surgery experience, a few weird and/or unexpected things:

• I wore my contacts to go in, but had to take them out in pre-op. I knew it would be weird to wear my glasses for long, since I generally don't wear them much, but the weirdest part was being rolled back for surgery without them. I'm really near-sighted, and seeing vague shapes of people but not being able to make out faces was deeply odd, like I was moving through a haunted landscape. 
• Similarly, coming to in post-op and not being able to see didn't help me reorient to the world. I was a little nauseous and a little crampy, and not being able to focus didn't help.
• The idea of being under anesthesia continues to weird me out. Not that I wanted to be awake for the surgery, but the idea that things were done to my body when I wasn't aware of them is strange.
• For quite a while after I was in post-op, they couldn't find my belongings: the bag of my clothes, and the small pouch that had my glasses and other things. At one point someone was asking me to describe my clothes, and talking about seeing if the bag was "sent upstairs" with the wrong patient! I don't even know what happened in the end, but I did get a big of a near-sighted laugh when someone appeared at the end of the bed and said, "Is this yours?" while holding up something I couldn't see! She had to get closer before I could see that it was indeed the pouch, and I felt better once I had the glasses back on.

While I hope not to need anything similar done again, at least I can now say I have done it, I didn't have a bad reaction to the anesthesia, and I'd have a better idea what to expect. In this case, though, I am very much hoping that first time's the charm.

Now, have a cat picture. Just what we all need in these troubling times is Newman, striking a pose. Or three.