I’ve been under general anaesthetic 3 times in my life…
The first time was at a teaching hospital - I know the patient before me had created a bit of a bloody mess. One of the juniors was struggling to fit the bracket that would keep my cannulated arm from flopping off the table - a senior came over and fixed it, then asked the junior
“Have you changed your gloves?”
“uhhh …no?”
“CHANGE YOUR GLOVES!”
The last time I went under, I was chatting with the anaesthetist as he was prepping to put me under - seemed like a nice guy, but a bit of a loose cannon. As he put me under, he said something along the lines of
“We’ll take care of you - this was the stuff that Michael Jackson was on.”
I’ve gone under five times in my life for minor surgeries. Nothing ever happened … but on the fifth on, it was about the same time I got to know a few long time nurses and a doctor friend of mine. They gave me a huge insight into the medical profession. That was when I realized that one of the things that can happen when you go under is … you just never wake up.
When you go unconscious, you aren’t going to sleep or going into some dream world … you’re more or less dead for a while.
I went into a my fifth surgery to fix a tendon in my arm and it was probably the most scared I’d been as the world went black. As soon as the anaesthetist injected me and told me to count … the only thing I could think of was that this was the last thing I would ever experience.
“We’ll take care of you - this was the stuff that Michael Jackson was on.”
“…wait what?”
Reminds me of that time in 1989 when I was a little girl, going under general anesthesia, the last thing the doctor asked me was “Do you like Bill Cosby?”
Yes read into it all you want. I do. This really happened.
Well yeah but here’s the thing. In 1989 The Cosby show was at its peak popularity and in 1989 very few people if anyone knew that Bill Cosby had been sedating & raping women in his free time. I was a little girl & watched the cosby show every week on TV, it was a great show portraying a great family, bill seemed like a model father and model citizen, he portrayed a doctor on the show.
My surgical procedure at the time took place in Long Beach California which isn’t far from Hollywood, and in retrospect, based on that weird question my anesthesiologist asked me just as I was going under,
I have a feeling that he may have known what Bill Cosby had going on behind the scenes. Because WHY ELSE WOULD HE HAVE ASKED ME SUCH A CREEPY QUESTION AT SUCH A SPOOKY VULNERABLE MOMENT
And the only reason I vividly remember him asking me that was because I only had a brief moment to contemplate his question and formulate my thoughts and response, and my first thought was “that’s a weird question but yeah I guess Bill Cosby is a great guy, good TV show” MY DAD EVEN HAD A BILL COSBY BOOK ON HIS BOOKSHELF 🤦♀️But all those thoughts took a fraction of a second and I had no time to reply to his question before I went unconscious.
For me, planning works sometimes. But frequently focusing on doing something is better. I do a lot of my tasks 50/50. Do a bit, sit down and write and plan, then go back to it.
Friend of ours down in London has apparently been having issues with squirrels sneaking in from his balcony and stealing, very specifically, Toffee Crisps.
Don’t ask me any of the obvious follow-up questions there, I have no idea. But I reckon that squirrel is thriving.
Use planners and reminders for benign tasks. You shouldn’t be stressing and thinking about that all the time. All that being said, I do get that sense of dread, omw to work.
I hate to be that guy, but they don’t remember where they hide their nuts. All the squirrels are hiding nuts, so they depend on finding eachothers stashes.
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