Life's a Stitch

It is just shy of 24 hours ago when I left the hospital with a replaced CMC joint  (the base of the thumb, where it meets your wrist). Interesting experience in many ways.

A coworker was also having outpatient surgery this past week, in the same health region. She was instructed to shower the night before after making sure she was changing into freshly laundered jammies with clean sheets on the bed. She was given large sanitizing wipes to use prior to her admission.

I had major surgery wearing my jeans and trail runners in the OR, listening to the staff's choice of 80's dance music. As I was fully awake, having been administered a scapular nerve block producing an arm that felt both heavy and unattached,  I was given the option of bringing along my iphone and earbuds. Hell no, I didn't want to miss the party. I listened to the power tools removing and reconstructing ligament into bone to the tune of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Mony Mony. This is not the drugs talking,  I can assure you, because under the new rules, oxy anything is considered too strong for orthopedic surgery pain control.

Today finds me painfully heaving my heavily casted arm somewhere between my heart and the ceiling at all times, while watching the clock for the next dose of Tramacet. And then a much appreciated moment of cheer from my coworkers arrived at the front door: