When the going gets weird, the weird go pro ~ Hunter S Thompson

Rev Kane’s Wild Ride: T-minus 7 Days

So we’re into the final countdown, a week from today at this moment, if all goes well, I’ll be coming down from being stoned off of my ass in ICU. Given that I’ll be getting a cocktail of fentanyl, ketamine and propofol I’m gonna be pretty out of it. I’ll also have an IV in my carotid artery, an IV in my arm, chest tubes, a catheter and a couple of pacemaker wires to juice my heart if it slows down too much. My transition to cyborg will be complete.

This week has been all about the pre-op preparation, appointments with nurses, lots of directions about drugs and such, picking up new prescriptions and final set ups in my apartment. It’s also my last week at work so of course I’m busy as hell, everyone, as expected, wants one last minute meeting. Well except for the faculty who think they are being sneaky and are already reaching out to the new dean to try and get decisions they don’t like changed. Of course, I’ve already anticipated that and fully read in my replacement about who they are, and what they’re going to try and do.

Had a nice surprise today, ended up on a text chain and in a chat with a bunch of my old fraternity brothers from the early 80’s. It’s always interesting chatting with folks you have known for forty years and who knew you in a really different phase of your life. They only knew me as an alcoholic and addict, someone who was always up for madness. Which in fact we found plenty of and some of those stories got retold today, it was fun.

While I expected people to be nice about the surgery, I have been truly surprised about how nice. At work, something that has been really nice is that the work I’ve put in for years in this job seems to have worked out. You never know how much impact you’ve actually had on people, or if they really appreciate what you’ve done. This week has been a bit of a revelation. There were people I expected to be nice, to give me a hug and wish me well. But the real surprise has been the other people, some I don’t even supervise who have shown up to wish me well and tell me how much they appreciate the work I do. I’ve also really surprisingly have been given a lot of small gifts. A few have been really nice and thoughtful including a copy of Monty Python’s The Search for the Holy Grail, which they appropriately said, will likely need to wait a few weeks to watch, because laughing will be painful for a time.

It’s been a nice surprise and at seven days this all seems more than a bit surreal, hence the HST quotes, because it’s Fear and Loathing in SF baby. ~ Rev Kane