Silas: Part 3, She's Only Mostly Dead
(continued from Part 2)
So I lay down. But everything does not go pleasantly dark like last time. Instead I am very aware that I am in an OR, people are bustling about, my arms are being put down out to the sides, and I look around for the anesthesiologist.
“What about my sedative?” I ask in a bit of a panic.
“Hmmm, what?” he murmurs, in that way that people do when they know exactly what you said, but they’re buying time to think of an answer.
“MY SEDATIVE!” I yip.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry,” he says.
What an idiot. I’m doomed. I start crying. They let Jonathan in a couple minutes later and I feel someone pressing my rib cage. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s something I’d rather not be aware of, thank you.
Then a squirmy baby is presented to me, we get a photo, and then all goes pleasantly dark. I start to come around again at the end, as the OR people are discussing Michael Jackson’s addiction to painkillers. And from then on I was awake and remembered everything. I was totally aware and lucid in the recovery room and slowly was able to move my legs again over the next couple of hours.
Odd Duck Nurse admonished Jonathan when he tried to show me photos of Silas, saying I needed to rest. But I couldn’t sleep to save my life.
She covered me with some type of electric blanket because my temperature was low. I told her it normally ran low, not a big deal.
“95 degrees is not low,” she said. “It’s practically dead.”
She was a great nurse… and great nurses are hard to come by. We were not at all joking when we asked if she could come over to the maternity ward for a few days.
After I came back from the Practically Dead, they wheeled me into the NICU to hold Silas for aminute. He was only in the NICU for a day – other than low blood sugar at birth, he was perfectly fine. Small – at 4 pounds,12 ounces - but fine.
(to be continued)
((bonus points if you can name the movie I'm alluding to in this post's title))
Sep 10, 2009 at 7:00 PM | Comments Off
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