Surgery Man

Originally Posted Thursday, November 6, 2014

I will be gone for a little while.  I have surgery scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  It is outpatient stuff, a torn meniscus that will be repaired through arthroscopy, or so they say.  I will have to survive the anesthesia, of course, and not stroke out or have a heart attack.  Those are the dangers I was told by the doctor yesterday.  He seemed confident, though, that no matter what, he'd be fine.  He had never once even had a blood clot during an operation let alone died.  Nope, he will be there at the end, though I probably won't see him again even if I survive.  Everything will be left to the "team" of nurses and P.A.s.  If I survive.  I couldn't afford anything else with my insurance plan, he said. 

He didn't say any of that.  What surprised me, though, is that there is no rehab.  I can run the very next day if I can stand it.  Recovery is all about the swelling and the pain.  I can put as much weight on it as I want right away.  There are no metrics that he could give me.  It is really all impressionistic. 

The doctor is, by the way, the team orthopedic for the local NBA team.  He told me not to expect that kind of care.  No, he didn't.  I just intuit that.  I don't think they pay him with Blue Cross. 

The worst part about the operation is that I am having it so that I can run again, but I have grown lazy, and now the idea of running isn't as appealing to me as it was a year ago.  Is running really healthy?  I've gotten used to being all blubbery.  There is some appeal to it. 

But now I must put in another day at the factory.  They are paying the insurance premium, you know.  They want something for that.  But I will let you know that I survived as soon as I can.