Hips and Knees?
“Are you a city-slicker, mate? How do you cope with all the traffic?”, the bloke in the chair next to me asked, as he started up a conversation, as we waited at the hospital today.
I was in for fairly minor surgery, having a sebaceous cyst removed. “I’m in to have my ear reattached. I blew it off the other week”, he told me, adding they would need to do some significant reconstruction work, and that he already had metal plates inside his head.
He was from Griffith and had been referred to Sydney by Wagga Base Hospital, as they couldn’t do it locally.
We went on to chat about Griffith and Wagga, and in particular the growth of Wagga Base Hospital. Thanks Darryl and Gladys!
He went on to describe the process of driving 600km from Griffith, staying in a caravan park, and then taking a further hour to drive into the city today. “We were hoping to cross the bridge, but missed the turn-off, so ended up in the tunnel,” he told me with a genuine air of disappointment.
His experience was a wonderful contrast to my own reasonably minor operation, and having travelled less than 2kilometres on the 352 bus!
He was one of those lovely friendly country blokes, always keen for a chat. “These knickers are pretty sexy”, he joked with one of the nurses, when asked to put on a gown, and some very unsexy knickers.
The whole process today was seamless. I arrived at 7.30, and by 9.30, I was gulping down the gas. By 11.30, I was awake, but only after the calls from several people asking me to wake up. ‘Sorry, I love sleeping”, I told them.
Before I knew it, I was picked up by my friend and neighbour, Karina and was home and sleeping again
I have had an operation every ten years. At 26, it was my appendix. At 36, it was a fistula. At 46, it was a sebaceous cyst. And today, at 56, that cyst was removed again. Should I book in now for 66? Hips/knees?
Glad to read that all went well today James. Recover quickly.
Thanks Rod. Still drifting in and out of sleep a bit. Thankfully no need for the pain drugs which my niece, a nurse, told me is “the good stuff”.
You are ok, that is good. The contrast between your travel experience and the ‘blown off ear man’ is extreme, and he probably had to pay for parking at the hospital too.
Within his knickers comment, there is a kind of innocence in some way about country blokes.
It is so annoying that after aesthetic all everyone wants to do is wake you up when you are having the best doze ever.
Yes, he was a real delight and all the staff seemed to like him.
Love these stories…I have a similar but not as extreme one…
In May I tripped down a hill in a paddock in full off-road motorcycling gear and landed heavily on my wrist which entailed a trip to ED at Singleton Hospital. A mid-thirties aged chap slopped in wearing tshirt, Knights’ shorts and thongs and I thought he must be waiting to collect someone as he looked pretty well.
After my xray, and where the technician told me unofficially I’d broken my radius (the tears flowed), I shuffled back out to the waiting room in my motorcycling boots, off-road riding pants and gear wondering how the hell this was going to work out as I’d ridden my bike to Singleton…
Mr Knights’ shorts saw my tears and asked if I was OK…I mumbled about bloody silliness and breaking things and what was he doing there – he’d been on a run and had ended up with a neighbour’s pitbull cross monster dog attaching itself to his left buttock as he ran swiftly past! He managed to detach the monster by poking it’s eyes with his thumbs and yelling very loudly. The trip to the ED was to have the puncture wounds flushed and checked plus have a tetanus shot – thankfully no rabies so nothing for that (there’s another story…)
Lovely young man – gave up mine work so he could see his kids grow up as he’d come off night shift and nearly crashed through tiredness on the way home. Has a new career doing handyman work which was proving interesting and varied – took all day to rehang a 2nd hand door using the exact same screw holes as per the client’s wishes and a week later was flown out to Tamworth via helicopter to “fix a fence”…I was thinking hang on to the second client rather than the other one and he’ll make himself!
Awesome story.