surgery and the male brain...

hiking in the area around Moab

You know, they frequently say that it’s us women that are so hard to figure out and know what’s going on in our heads but I truly disagree after living with Rob for over 22 years.  Sometimes, that man puzzles the heck out of me.  If you’ve been keeping up, you know that Rob is scheduled for surgery this morning on his knee.  Well, yesterday, I saw the most unusual personality behavior emerge and I think it’s because he’s nervous and doesn’t want to admit it.

I keep forgetting that Rob has only had two other surgeries in his whole life, being the medical queen, myself.  His first surgery was just in 2006 when he had a UPPP (I won’t go into what all that stands for) to relieve him of his sleep apnea.  For a first surgery, it was a doozy, too. They had to remove his tonsils and adenoids, trim the thickness of his tongue, tack up his uvula in the back of his throat and break some tiny bones in his nose to reshape it so he could breathe better. It was not something I’d like to experience, either.  To top it off, he got so enamored of the liquid pain meds, he developed a rash because he was guzzling too much.  It was a long road to recovery, although, if you talk with him about it now, he shrugs it off. The funniest part of his recuperation was that I couldn’t get him to eat solid food for quite a while, despite the doc saying he was ready.  So, in order to get calories in him, I was melting almost a whole stick of butter in his chicken broth.  He wouldn’t even try anything else for the longest time, except jello and popsicles. The most hilarious thing, though, is afterwards, he kept asking if I'd make that "special" broth again until I finally had to confess that it was the butter that made it taste so good. I figure that was probably 500 calories a cup stuff!

His second surgery was for a umbilical hernia repair and he really flew right through that one just last year.  So, yesterday, when he came home for lunch, I was a little unprepared for the “Rob” that showed up to dine.  I’m not sure if I can quite explain it on paper but he was really talkative and yet at the same time, overfocused on silly things.  What it was, I think, is he was acting more like me and less like him!  I could feel this crazy, kinetic energy shooting off of him and he seemed unable to really focus on one thing.  I am hoping that he’ll be better when he wakes up this morning.  It wasn’t like he was mean or nasty…..just very electric, if that makes any sense.  Rob is a very focused person and he just wasn’t yesterday.  Poor guy had all kinds of things to get done at work, too, including turning in his budget, so maybe that was part of it.

Rob in front of the "mittens" in Monument Valley.

So, today’s the day!  We called yesterday and they told us to be at the hospital at 10:30.  That means, if all goes well, his surgery time is 11:30.  I’ve got his cryocuff and crutches all ready and his little area around his lounge chair prepared for him. If he’s like I was, there’ll be no going upstairs to the bedroom for a few days so I’m making him a nice little nest in front of the TV. Our 100 year old house has 16 very steep steps up to the bedrooms. 

Of course, I’ll be taking Thistle along.  She much prefers to sit in daddy’s truck than in her kennel here at home.  I figure we’ll get him all tucked into his surgery and then I’ll go out and walk Thistle for a while, that will help pass the time.  She was a trooper when we brought her along for my surgery.  Plus, there’s nothing like good puppy licks to start the healing process when Rob is finished!  If you are a FB friend, I’m sure I’ll be embarrassing Rob with candid pictures throughout the process, as well, tee hee.

The weather is already looking like it’s going to be a beautiful day!  We had to cover a few of the new plantings we did over the weekend, the erygium is rather delicate right now and it’s still been getting into the low 30’s here at night.  I am hoping that this last little snowstorm we had Friday is the last of the snow and maybe it will just rain from now on.  That snow didn’t do any damage, thank goodness, as my lilac hedge is starting to look loaded with blossoms and I would hate for them to freeze.  Lilacs are one of the most heavenly scents, I think.  Our hedge runs around three sides of our property and when those suckers are in bloom, I spend as much time as possible out there with them, inhaling!  Of course, this spring, the allergies are so bad, I don’t know if I can get anything through my swollen nostrils right now!  Usually, the cottonwood trees don’t start releasing all their little fuzzies until June but because of the warm winter, it’s already flying around like crazy.  Thistle has been chasing the fuzzies and eating them, yuck!  Buffalo sometimes looks like there’s snow everywhere in the late spring and summer with all of them flying around and settling in big swirling piles.

Okay, well, I have to get moving and see what personality my husband has this morning. I’m trying to let him sleep as long as possible so he doesn’t think about not being able to have coffee and breakfast.  I swear, every time he has to be NPO (without food or water) for a procedure, he thinks it’s the end of the world and he’s gonna starve.  I can pretty much guarantee that we’ll be stopping at the Dragon Wall Chinese buffet after his surgery so he can make up for that whole 12 hours he was without food.  After my knee surgery, I was feeling well enough to actually go sit down and eat at a restaurant so I imagine he’ll be the same.  The wonderful thing about this surgery is that Dr. Quinn gives the extra added bonus of injected painkillers right into the knee so Rob’s probably not going to be feeling a lot of pain until that wears off tomorrow.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!  I hope that everything is going swimmingly in your life and you find humor in everything.  Doesn’t do a lot of good to be upset about things you have no control over.  As I always say, you may not have control over your circumstances, but you always have control over how you let life and those circumstances affect you!  Giggling about it is way more fun!