It’s Friday and I’m not a surgeon anymore. And I miss it every day and especially on Friday.
My life is just the same as everyone’s, but it’s different for me than it used to be. I used to be totally focused on the person I was operating on and trying to help and I was used to having to deal with the unexpected in the operating room. I used to use a children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” [by Laura Numeroff] to describe what surgery is like to those learning to be a scrub nurse.
Life after Surgery
Today I had one of those moments that makes me realize how ill prepared I was for life after surgery.
I just got in from walking the dogs. Made a cup of coffee and was going to sit down to read for a while. Jenny was watching Hayes.
I thought, maybe I’ll play some music while I read. Maybe the Beatles. It is Friday after all.
Turned on the computer next to me. Realized the operating system needed updating. Started that. Then saw the track pad battery was dead. Took it to the bathroom where I keep coins to open the cap and dropped the little cap to the track pad down the sink.
Cleaned everything out from under the sink. Stuff needed to be thrown away. Refilled the shampoo bottle in the shower. Got an adjustable wrench to open the nuts that hold the sink’s trap. Got a towel to catch the water.
Got the cap but saw the trap was nasty so got an old surgical bottle brush to clean it.
Put the trap back on and took the damp towel to the laundry room and saw one of the dogs had pooped in the laundry room. Most likely yesterday. Cleaned that up.
Put batteries in the track pad and thought… If you give a mouse a cookie. Coffee was cold. Time to read has passed. I miss surgery and the people and thinking about hip cup position and leg length and knee range of motion. Life is like surgery, just a whole lot different.