awakeOn the whole, the procedure experience was unmemorable. Literally. They gave me anesthesia and sedatives both locally and intravenously. There's a bruise forming on the top of my hand from the IV. I wish they wouldn't put the things there. I much prefer the inside elbow location for an IV. Hurts less. Anyway, one of the effects of the anesthesia is short-term memory loss. I remember breathing the lidocaine gas and my tongue and throat going numb. And I remember the anesthesiologist injecting something into my IV. Then nothing until I opened my eyes in recovery to see Matthew grinning down at me.
Apparently, though, I was awake and responsive throughout the whole thing. Matthew assures me that my eyes were wide open when they wheeled me into recovery. And I was speaking and responding to questions. But the interesting thing is, I kept asking the same questions over and over again, as though I'd forgotten that I'd asked the question and what the answer was. Which I had. Things like "what time is it?" and "when will the anesthesia wear off so I can eat?" I remember the last time I asked those questions . . . at which point I stopped asking. But couldn't figure out why Matthew kept chuckling at me. Appears he'd been answering me in something of a loop for a while there.
Weird drug that. It basically zapped my extremely short-term memory so I couldn't retain anything. Before I went in, the nurse told me that amnesia was one of the effects, and I determined to try to hang in there as long as I could, try to see what I could remember. Nope. Out like a light. Or rather, not out, but insensibly awake like a light.
Also interesting that my brain works in such a predictable fashion that I ask the exact same questions over and over again, coming out of a medical procedure.
Aside from an odd sensation in one of my sinuses, that was a wholly unpainful procedure. Don't even have a sore throat.
But I do wonder if I was in any pain or discomfort during the bronchoscopy--considering they stuck a tube up my nose--but I simply can't remember it. 'Course I also had a lot of numbing agent, so the odds of me feeling anything even if I could remember it are slim to none.
Weird.
First thing I did as soon as I could swallow and therefore eat/drink again, was have a big cup of coffee. Tube-in-nose notwithstanding, I was hurting for my caffeine fix.
Writing Stuff:
Obviously, not much writing got done yesterday. I was loopy for hours after I got home, quite incapable of putting written words in any semblance of decent order.
But I did check the Abyss & Apex site and while it seems that part ii of issue #9 is still in the process of being published, "Inside the Witch's Oven" is up, as is a poem by Tim Myers. The link to the short by Bruce Boston, however, is still not functional. I'll be sharing a TOC with Bruce Boston! Eventually.
I'm also amused that "Witch's Oven" is the opening story of part ii. Very cool.
