Suzy Says

I’m sorry to say that my first thought when I saw the sun this morning was that the coat of paint I put on the flash heater yesterday wouldn’t be streaky from fog. I actually went out and checked before I had coffee.

Sad, no?

Before I give you the Megan Report, I’d like to wish my friend and fellow blogger Mike the happiest of birthdays. My present to him is not telling y’all how long I’ve known him. Note to Mike: we met in kindergarten, right?

Yesterday, I spent the morning – yeah, you guessed it – painting and cleaning the bathroom. Still can’t tell you which is worse, really. As I stepped out of my hard-earned and (temporarily) spider-free shower, the phone rang. It was my brother, telling me that Megan was out of surgery and they were on their way home.

My morning, however paint- and chore-filled, was a complete joy compared to my siblings’. Jonathan picked Megan up at 4:30 in the morning for the two hour drive to the hospital. His ability to leap out of bed at any time and fight fires both wild and domestic makes him ideally suited for early morning chauffeur duty.

Though Meg was asked to arrive at the hospital at 6:30 am, the surgery didn’t start until 9:00 or so. They gave her what they call “conscious sedation”, but all she remembers is her arms being strapped to the table and then waking up with her knee already wrapped and ready to go. Before the surgery, the anesthesiologist told her that he could sedate her less, so she could watch the operation on a TV screen.

She refused, and he said, “It’s not gory at all.”

“Look, I’ve had brains in my hair. Blood and guts don’t bother me. If it was your knee, I’d watch all day. But I don’t want to watch mine.”

Pause.

“Fair enough.”

Her first words on waking up were “Have you told my brother I’m OK?” He was waiting for her in the recovery room, where he called me while Megan launched her successful campaign to go home ASAP. She has an amazing ability to snap out of sedation and medication. Also, they did some kind of deep numbing of the knee, which was supposed to wear off “sometime in the evening”, but in practice wore off before 3:00 in the afternoon.

While the surgeon was in there, he took out that pesky piece of cartilage which was lodged under her kneecap and started all the trouble in the first place, six long weeks ago, and also a little cyst, some charmingly named osteophytes, some bone, some more cartilage, and a bunch of fluid.

Jonathan dropped Meg off around 1:00 in the afternoon, then with a hug and a kiss was on his way in his usual super-hero manner. I fussed with Megan’s pillows and ice packs, and made turkey chili with cornmeal muffins (thank you, Jiffy corn muffin mix! Every pantry should have some) for dinner. I checked in on her again yesterday evening, and she was doing fine.

It’s still early by our standards, but I’ll call over there soon and get an update. Thanks for all the love and hugs and good wishes, everyone. It means a lot to all of us.