Heavenly Beverley : Another Anaesthetic Aftermath for this Beverley Hillbilly

Today is Day Three postoperatively after the Boy Wonder's skirmish with my knee. I have been seriously impressed with a reasonably fast recovery. I can walk unaided with minimum pain. Excellent. However, I have rediscovered muscles around my knee that haven't been used properly for about six weeks, so they are complaining a bit. As is my lower back, after being in an awkward position overnight in hospital. However, these aches are relatively minor and are purely a result of Getting Older.

And I can't fault my treatment or the staff at the Hotel de Mount. The Boy Wonder was his usual urbane and amiable self, the anaesthetist was the delightful Anna Negus and nurses Mercy, Tahnee and Sarah were all caring, thoughtful and available. Bonus.

Doctor Anna was a cross between my fairy godmother and a knight in shining armour. She recognised and dealt with my increasingly nervous disposition once we were all in theatre- "here's your Bailey's on the rocks" - which eased my anxiety instantly and allowed me to fall into a relaxing and calm unconsciousness.

I woke well, ate well, had no side effects and was completely astounded by my lack of drowsiness or any other unpleasantness. Note to self - book Anna as anaesthetist whenever having any surgery. In her spare time, I believe she is building a house somewhere on the semi-rural edges of Perth where she and her husband care for mutant sheep. My kind of girl.

Night nurse Tahnee deserves special mention and an endurance medal. Operating as nurse coordinator as well as having her own patients, she also agisted two cranky and verbally aggressive male patients sometime in the wee hours of the morning. I think she threatened them with a shift to the local major public hospital if they didn't behave themselves and somehow separated them into different rooms on the exceedingly crowded orthopaedic ward. Gold star please for Tahnee.

Mercy (afternoon nurse) and Sarah (morning nurse) were cheerful, helpful and active. Sarah understood our need to get the hell out of there and facilitated our discharge with speed. Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry, I left my red cardigan on the ward. I will retrieve that item of clothing when we return for my appointment with Ben next week.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I keep forgetting that a general anaesthetic continues to impact for days after I leave the surgery behind. Saturday I had grand plans of opening the Gallery in the latter part of the afternoon. Fail. Yesterday I opened the Gallery but succumbed to sleepiness about four o'clock and slept soundly for two hours. Subsequently, I tossed and turned most of last night and scored a "D" for trying to shut down my talkative brain.Hence today, I am really tired (again) and all those tasks I was going to tackle are a tad too ambitious.

Michael is also restless most nights. So there are two of us trying to sleep in less than ideal circumstances. Michael's conversations during the dark hours are also the stuff of legends. To be fair, he claims that he chats when he's asleep as he never gets a word in during the day. Can't argue with his logic on that point.

So Michael's latest nocturnal mutterings were in the company of a salad, including a talking carrot. I believe the carrot had a name, but my brain gave up trying to follow this latest insanity as I pushed for an escape to Cloud Cuckoo Land. The previous night's bizarre rendezvous included chats with a bombastic red tractor and a mouthy cocky spaniel. This is my life....

As a result, I am going to be kind to myself today. I intend to float around, doing only what I wish. That will include a bit of sorting of washing and paperwork and I may even tackle the dishes once the rain ceases. In the meantime, the plates are getting a jolly good rinse on my outside sink.

Until next time!