Surgery Today!

Finally, after almost a month since my fall on the ice and rupturing my quadriceps, I am having surgery to repair those quadriceps. My orthopedist told me that after surgery, recovery time will be six to eights weeks.  A long haul folks. But, could be worse. I could have broken my hip or got a fractured skull when I tripped/slipped on that mound of ice that had frozen at the base of the drain pipe at the corner of the building.

I slept fitfully last night.  I can never get a good sleep the night before surgery. I worry. I'm not fond of going under (anesthesia) again. Two things that scare me now that never used to: going under anesthesia and flying in planes. Imagine, being enclosed in a tube six miles high in the sky for over five hours with every seat packed.  First time I flew across country (to San Francisco in 1979), it was a lark.  This last time (flying to L.A.), my heart was in my mouth.  I'm also fearful of heights now, never used to be when I was younger. But I'm straying off the subject at hand here. Surgery today.

Bill will help me slid into the back seat of our car (I still can't lift my lower left leg). I have to be at the hospital by 11:15 AM.  Of course we'll get there earlier. 

I took my anti-bacterial shower again this morning as I have done for the past week.  Try taking a shower when you can't life your left leg or put pressure on it for fear of falling down.  Thank goodness my metal cane is waterproof. Again, I think of how lucky I am with "only" a leg with torn ligaments.  What do people do who have BOTH legs incapacitated?  God bless them and their caretakers.  Bless Bill, I have been such a burden on him for the past month. Limping around the house here, unable to go downstairs, drive a car, or clean the house.  I'm useless right now.  A couch potato.  

I am so looking forward to going back to work.  To getting my life back on track. To sitting at this computer without my left leg stretched out to the side, causing pain in my back as I update this blog. 

Enough complaining from me.  Soon I will be on my way to another adventure at the local hospital. They have me in their data base from my past visits for prostate cancer procedures and multiple kidney stone visits and two surgeries. I've had more hospital procedure these past two years than I've had my whole life.  From 1962, when I dislocated my other knee when I was in the Army, I didn't have a hospital visit until 2001, my first kidney stone attack. Then I had two sphincterotmoty surgeries (the first one didn't take) in 2003 at the VA.  All those years I worked at the banks.  I didn't even have a doctor.  I left my one job at Girard with 220 sick days accrued.  Of course my later hospital procedures, not working not paid just like now.  But I'm rambling.

I'm going to lie down and rest now.  Haven't had anything to eat or drink since about 10 PM last night.  One hour we leave for the hospital 

I hope to be back here at this location later today.  If I'm not, it's been real.

My Weird Attraction

"What is he talking about?" you ask.  Dr. Frankentstein and The Monster.  Oh, by the way, The Monster didn't have a name.  His name wasn't "Frankenstein", that was the name of the doctor that created him.  A little tidbit to add to the Useless Trivia section of your brain.

The first time I saw the movie "Frankenstein" was in 1951 at the Roosevelt Theater in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  I paid 20 cents to see this movie, that literally left me so traumatized with fear that I was afraid to leave the movie theater after the movie was over.  I was petrified.  I couldn't move from my seat.  

Roosevelt Movie Theater - Downingtown, Pennsylvania

The lights may have went on in the movie theater but it was dark outside and I had a long walk home . . . . in the dark.  I was paralyzed with fear, afraid that The Monster would be hiding behind a building and grab me when I walked home.

Interior - Roosevelt movie theater - "Negroes" sat in the balcony - I always wanted to sit in the balcony but wasn't allowed because I was white - this was the Fifties

For many years thereafter, I was always afraid to walk dark and lonely roads at night.  For a couple of years I worked at the Farmers' Market in Downingtown, getting off at 11 PM on a Friday and Saturday night and I had a several mile walk home, through the countryside.  I was sure Frankenstein's monster was lurking somewhere in the darks shadows of the cornfields, just waiting to pounce on me and tear me to pieces.  To tell you the truth, I still have a little bit of that fear.

"Grrrwl! I'm waiting for you Ron!"

But I also experienced something else for the first time watching that first Frankenstein movie.  I was sort of attracted to Dr. Frankenstein, the actor Colin Clive.  "Sort of?" Oh okay, I was majorly attracted to him.  

There was just "something" about him.  Of course his physical appearance, small of frame. I've always been attracted to slightly built guys - 145 lbs, 5'9" range.  Smaller guys? Not so much and definitely not big guys.  And of course his physical features, masculine yet vulnerable.  


Then I experienced another new emotion at violent, climatic end of the movie,where Dr. Frankenstein confronts the Monster that he was created in the old windmill.  Is there a person on this planet who hasn't seen that scene?  What a perfect metaphor for us, we who have created a monster and now that monster turns on us.  Not only was I scared to death by that scene of confrontation but I notice a new and strange and "interesting" feeling when the Monster got hold of Dr. Frankenstein and flung him off the windmill, only to have Dr. Frankenstein's body momentarily caught on the windmill before falling to the ground below.  

Yes folks, I wanted to rescue Dr. Frankenstein and comfort him and explore this strange new feeling I was experiencing for the first time. It wasn't until many years later that I recognized this feeling.  Not for me the blonde surfer boys or the macho action stars of the movies.  

Troy Donahue - may be good-looking but does absolutely nothing for me - sorry blondie

Admit it, we all have our weird and offbeat fantasies.  This was/is mine.  As for The Monster, has there ever been a better makeup job to scare the bejesus out of you? To this day folks, I remember the first time I saw the undead look in The Monster's face.  This definitely DOES NOT turn me on. But I do know what turns me on and that autumn day sixty-three years ago was the first time I had THAT feeling.  And folks, it's been good ever since.  And oh yes, The Monster still scares the bejesus out of me.

Snakes

A harmless black snake sunning it self in a driveway

Snakes scare me.  Yes, I have a primordial fear of snakes.  But no, I don't kill a snake on sight.

This past week snakes have been in the dialogue.  My niece, who lives in South Carolina has her big girl panties all in a twist because she saw a snake slither into the crawlspace of her house.  She has seven kids ranging in age from eight to eighteen.  She says she "fears" for them. Oh my goodness niece, get a grip.  

She has sent several Facebook messages about how she has her dog crawling in the crawlspace after the snake.  Of course she wants to kill the snake.  Hey, guess what niece, the snake is more afraid of you than you are of the snake.

A couple of years ago I saw my neighbor come charging out of his house with a shovel.  He found a harmless garden sunning himself in his driveway.  So of course he passed the death sentence on that snake and "shoveled" it to death.  He had to protect his daughter.  

A harmless garter snake I found at Pepper's Nursery while I was shopping for bushes

You know what?  If he had given the snake a chance to warm up that harmless garter snake would have slithered off out of harm's way.

Ariel view of our former Pennsylvania wooded property - snake infested - we survived

Having said all this about snakes, the few times I've encountered a snake they have scared me.  In fact the only time I've ever screamed in my life was back in 1976.  Bill and I had purchased seven acres of wooded land in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  Bill drove his car to a clearing in the property.  As I was getting out of the car I almost stepped on a snake.  As my foot was going down I let out a scream that I didn't know I was capable of.  Never in my life had I screamed before (maybe when I was born and was circumcised but I don't remember) now since.  In fact, I've tried to scream (like a little girl) and it just doesn't work.  But did it ever work that day!  Of course the snake quickly slithered off into the woods and no harm was done to me or the snake.  

The garter snake taking off after I took its picture - camera shy

Another time I was on a road cleanup crew.  It was an early spring morning.  As I was picking up the litter at a high traffic crossroads I came across a hubcap.  I picked it up and THERE WAS A SNAKE!  And it had a fancy design on it back so I KNOW it was poisonous.  I didn't scream this time but slowly place the hubcap back on top of that fancy design snake.  I didn't kill it. 

So folks, when you see a snake, don't kill it.  Gather up your cojones and leave it.  Okay?