Days of rehab - āśraya

On Friday October 17th of this year I was having a hard time in the emergency room, after days of pain. Once I was singed in, embarassedly wearing one of those blue hospital coats and just before it all started to go very (I mean very) quickly, it went incredibly slow, painstakingly so.

Once the surgeon saw me and decided I would "most likely" need surgery, the work began. It wasn't more than 20 minutes when I was being helped into a wheel chair and had a blanket wrapped around me like a Buddha. My hair was a mess, after laying down for 2 hours time and my cheeks were flatterly pink with high fever. The pain continued, but I was feeling more calmed cause someone seemed to know what was wrong with me finally. Then it all happened in sequence: radiology, ecos, paper work...and the question that will stay in my memory for times to come: You do need the surgery in the end, everything is ready and you can go on ahead now. So, what do you think?

This was asked by the surgeon, while I disguised as a Buddha stared up at him from my wheel chair thinking: "What is the answer he wants me to give him? What do you answer to that?". He understood my contemplation as hesitation, and ended up explaining alternative but at the long run useless treatments. I signed my acceptance paper, without even reading it (I didn't even think about it, and most likely wouldn't remember what was written) and asked that my sister, who at this time had at least 3 hours in the waiting room, be informed.

I've already commented some of my impressions on this whole life experience on My 43 things so I'm not going to go over it again. Overall conclution is simple: it's less dramatic than it seems, yet is way much more intense. Today I've learnt that I need one more week at least to reach full "you are allowed to go to work now" recovery. I need to start making longer walks, keep the food restrictions I was ordered and go back for another check on monday afternoon, those were the doctor's orders.

Rehab has been quite an experience, already in June it was: back then I spent my days reading. This time though, I have been mostly watching series, playing games and knitting my sister a scarf. Since sitting down too long makes me unconfortable and it's painfull, I have had to lay down more than wanted. Also, my baby cat Freyja who is by definition cuddly, doesn't let me go anywhere without supervision. Maybe she knows something happened. Thanks to all who have been there, it has been less boring.