I’ve been a little emotional the past couple of days. I guess I’m a little more nervous about my upcoming surgery than I thought I was. Drawing has been a nice distraction. I did these two drawings yesterday.
My surgery is Tuesday and I have no idea how I’m going to feel, so if I disappear for a little while that’s what’s going on.
Nice.
More, please (as muses and moods allow…).
I prefer odd numbers of petals.
Wow, that one with the eye just sneaked in there! It looks a bit freaked out…
Yes, please post more pictures.
Also, DO NOT BE AFRAID to speak up pre-surgery and demand the “good drugs”–the ones that keep you comfortable during surgery. Ask for pain management strategies after surgery. Your husband is an EMT, yes? Have him advocate for you. If your pain is managed, you’ll heal faster.
But your pain may not be bad, especially if you’ve been coping with chronic pain in that knee. You might feel relieved that the pain is gone.
If this surgery is out-patient, have a plan for after surgery when you won’t be entirely yourself: have dinner planned in advance, cue up some good movies to entertain yourself that you don’t mind if you fall asleep in the middle of. Is there a snack you particularly like that won’t make you get up/your daughter can help with? For example: frozen grapes are fun to suck on while watching a movie or drawing pictures together, and your daughter can sit with you and share them–she’ll feel like she’s helping, in an age-appropriate way.
If this surgery is in-patient and you stay one or more nights, bring something to entertain yourself in case you’re up in the middle of the night–a puzzle book, Sudoku, drawing pad–something that doesn’t take a lot of focus to do, because you might be groggy after the anesthesia (and if you forget it when you leave, a puzzle book is easily replaced). Let the nurses bring you jello or juice or whatever they have that you want.
Remember your goal–a working, pain-free knee. You’re doing this for your own health.
We’ll all be rooting for you.
It is to my mind (literally, not the phrase) right to fret about operations and medical procedures, other people are going to do things to my body, and there is normally only one other person that I permit to do that. I did get used to hugging and/or kissing people when it became the standard way of greeting, but am actually rather relieved that this has changed and I can go back to just hugging those I really care about. And that’s before you even get to what they are going to do. Still Katydid is right, you are doing this to end up with no pain, so try and focus on that whenever you start worrying. Although writing out what you are worrying about may be helpful, so you can look at the worries and address them – whether that will help is very personal, so don’t do it if you think you’ll just end up focusing on the worries rather than addressing them.
I hope your operation and recovery are so smooth you end up looking back and laughing at yourself (affectionately!) for your worries.