27 Jul 2011

Big organ recital today!

The surgery was successful, the orthopedic surgeon doing all that he said he would do - it was my first real surgical operation. The nurse pointed out that it was good that I had made it this far into life without one. Well, okay... I had my tonsils out when I was about three or four; I guess that counts as surgery.

The procedure lasted nearly two hours. It was very difficult for me to come out of the sedation (propofol, "milk of amnesia," what killed Michael Jackson). I was dozy for hours, sleeping frequently and deeply during the day. My wife told me that in addition to demanding to know how long I was out - it annoys me that they don't let me wear my chronograph - I kept telling one of the nurses that she had brown hair and brown eyes.

My right shoulder feels like it was flattened by a freight train. So my doc gave me a couple of pain medications, which I've been taking. One is 800 mg Motrin, which is nothing more than the "rugby dose" of ibuprofen I'd take after some rugby matches. The other is hydromorphone, a narcotic morphine derivative, which is the generic form of Dilaudid. It's supposed to make you euphoric, but I haven't noticed that at all. Perhaps it takes more than two pills to do it. I also got prescribed an antibiotic and a pill to prevent nausea from the other pills.

I got about four hours of sleep last night due to my sleeping a lot during the day, the necessity of wearing an arm sling and... the hiccups. I had them from 1 AM to 1:38 AM, again at 2:15 AM and lasting until 3:40 AM, and they started again at 5:40 AM. In fact, I have them as I type this. What an annoyance! That and ants... we've had ants trailing though our kitchen for days. We kill them, remove the bodies and they keep coming back. Geez, what's next? Crickets? Locusts? Emerods? Some other Biblical plague?

Once, when I was in the Marines, I had the hiccups for nearly three days. I suspect that with me, it has something to do with acid reflux.

Cari and I went to the movie theater the other night to see the last Harry Potter film - it was a vast improvement over the previous one, Deathly Hallows part one, which seemed to be a travelogue of a camping trip from hell - bad weather, bleak surroundings, a gray color palette and internal strife and arguing. This last film has plot points which puzzle me, however. Giving away part of the plot: Potter becomes the Boy Who Lived, twice, as he surrenders himself to Voldemort to be killed. He survives. So... doesn't that take the drama out of the subsequent epic wizard's duel? Apparently Voldemort cannot kill Harry. And what good did the resurrection stone do?

Well. As I recall, I thought the franchise was beginning to turn into a jumbled mess plot wise towards the end, but the movie seems to sort things out somewhat better than on the printed page. And I am certain J.K. Rowling is crying all the way to the bank. When the movie ended Cari said to me, "I wish I had a small fraction of the money Rowling has made from Harry Potter." Indeed.

As you can see, I can type, putting the mouse and keyboard atop some books - but it hurts a little. So I'll quit. Back to bed... I hope these %#$!^@! hiccups go away soon.

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