By dkl9, written 2024-236, revised 2024-236 (0 revisions)
The first one to talk to me was one of the surgeon's assistants — an anaesthesiologist, I suppose. Near the beginning, she spoke with a colleague about what may well have been wholly separate from, and funnier than, the work on me. It sounded a tad like Hindi.
She put some clip on my right index finger. I assume that was standard practice. Noticing that my right hand was cold, she proceeded to wrap a little towel around it. I doubt that's standard practice. Only much later did I learn that pulse oximetry usually uses a clip around a finger, and is notably less accurate on cold limbs.
"Nice work," muttered the surgeon as he poked a needle into the ventral side of my elbow. The poke was only felt mechanically, sans pain. He must have been talking more to himself more than me. Everyone later was amazed by how well he did.
My consciousness cut out for the briefest little hiccup. The next thing I knew, my mouth was shut, gauze in the sides, mind surprised but perceiving, as an assistant pulled the needle from my arm. First moves after that: pull out a pen and a scrap of paper. Scribble brief, boring notes on mental state. Multiply 73 by 44. Get 3212, to be checked later. Bewilder the surgeon, just a little, hopefully. Walk, barely stable, to my ride home.
I multiplied correctly, of course. Cerebrum intact. Good. An integral done while on the ride confirmed further that I could still think just fine.
They prescribed a liquid- and soft-food diet for the next couple days. All liquid foods and most soft foods are that way due to high water content. The higher the water content, the less room for other nutrients, at constant total volume and mass of food. I took in less than 1000 kcal in the first day. The second afternoon, I was surprisingly drowsy, which may have been — for the first time — from eating too little rather than too much.
They prescribed 15 500-mg capsules of amoxicillin. If ingesting a capsule is called "popping", "amoxicillin" contains "mox", and "-ie" is a diminutive suffix, then I should be able to casually describe my taking that drug as "popping a moxie".