I don't like surprises. It really doesn't matter what kind of surprise it is, good or bad, I don't like them. This week I got a bad surprise and a good surprise and reacted the same way to both and I was made aware that it's surprises themselves that I am not fond of. This is kind of strange for my personality, because I'm a water off a duck's back kind of gal. If I'm giving a presentation and the equipment isn't working or isn't existing in the room that I am presenting I can just roll with it. I don't freak out, not even on the inside where no one can see it. However, I freak out for surprises that are completely unexpected, not on the outside where someone who doesn't know me well can see it, but on the inside where only people (mainly observant female friends) who really know me can see it.
Wednesday held my first surprise of the week. The family practice doctor called on Monday and wanted to get me in to an orthopedic as soon as possible, but wouldn't say why. Wednesday was the first day of the week that I wasn't holding down an office by myself, so I asked to wait until Wednesday. I thought it was strange because dr's never seem to care about how fast you are seen so I figured we'd probably be discussing surgery or something. Wednesday I left work to go to an orthopedic for what I thought would be a sit down discussion about the MRI. When I got back to the room they gave me a paper pair of shorts (I didn't even know they made those) and took more x-rays. I guess the last set of x-rays no longer apply. I was fine with that. Then they put me back in the room. I asked if I could get dressed and they said, "No, I'd wait until I saw the doctor." I thought that sounded reasonable. He might want to see the outside of the knee that he's seeing so much of the inside of. When the doctor came in he brought an assistant. All male doctors bring female assistants with them to see patients these days, so I thought nothing of it. The doctor started to explain that something that was supposed to be shaped like a kidney was round and was drawing pictured on the paper covering the table that I was sitting on. This is when I noticed that his lovely assistant was preparing a rather large needle and syringe and wasn't leaving the room with it. The doctor said something about a nerve test in a couple of weeks and a scope possibly a few weeks after and possibly holding off surgery until summer. The reason that there are so many holes in what he said and no medical terminology what-so-ever is because I was calmly freaking out. The doctor thought I was actually listening, but my mind was racing about what exactly he was going to do with the syringe and needle.
Thought 1) Is that one of those cortisone shots I've heard horror stories about?
Thought 2) How bad is that going to hurt?
Thought 3) I hope I can stay as still as I need to for this.
Thought 4) Maybe that isn't really for me, maybe she'll leave and take it to some other room.
Thought 5) Dang, she isn't leaving.
Thought 6) I hope I don't cry.
Thought 7) I hope I don't throw up.
Thought 8) Maybe I should ask for something to be sick in just in case.
Thought 9) How bad is this going to hurt? (Actually, I thought that every other thought, but I thought it would be a little redundant to say that.)
Thought 10) Which would make me look more like a chicken, staying and then not being able to hide the discomfort when I go through with it, or jumping off this table and running out of the room.
Seconds before he injected the cortisone under my knee cap, he told me what he was going to do. (I was freaking out for no reason. It wasn't that bad. It just made my leg numb for a day and a half.) When he was done he said he'd see me in a couple of weeks for the test that starts with an m. I can't even Google it to try and find our what he said. I tried. You need more information than that. When I said, "What's that?" He said, the nerve test that I just told you about. I had to apologize for being a bad student (and I'm a teacher)! I'll ask him to explain every thing again when I go back for the nerve test. I'm too embarrassed to call and let him know how little of what he said actually registered.
That was a bad surprise---nobody likes those. However, people that know me know that I don't like good ones either. People who aren't my husband, that is. Saturday, my 22 year old daughter called and wanted to do lunch. I thought that sounded nice. When she gets to the door, she apologizes because she is part of an elaborate scheme by my husband to surprise me. Our 25th wedding anniversary is Wednesday and he wanted to surprise me. Both of my daughters tried to talk him out of it because they know how I feel about surprises. Neither one of them has known me for 25 years and they know this. How can you be married to someone that long and not know this? He thinks that one day he'll have the perfect surprise for me and I will change my view point about surprises. Well, today wouldn't be the day. Jess didn't know what the surprise was, she just knew that she needed to kidnap me and bring me to what turned out to be a kind of bed a breakfast. It had had electricity and was in a nice down town area. We were to stay there until we needed to go to church the next day. My mind started racing the same way that it did in the doctor's office.
Thought 1) Chrissie and I have no clothes. None for sleeping in and none for going to church in. We're going to have to get up early enough to go home and change after sleeping in a strange bed all night.
Thought 2) I don't have my heart medicines. I guess I can take it when I go home for my clothes.
Thought 3) I didn't get my laundry done. Today's laundry day. None of us will have anything to wear by Tuesday if I don't do laundry. I do Sunday School, afternoon service and evening service on Sundays and work from 7am to 7pm on Monday. There is no time to get it done by Tuesday.
Thought 4) I was supposed to get caught up with my lesson plans by Monday. I promised. There is no time for that for the same reason that there is no time for laundry.
Thought 5) I'm not finished with my devotion for the women's study that I'm sort of leading. I post it on another blog and I don't have Internet.
Thought 6) What are we going to do? We have a 12 year old with us. It's not like we can do what other couple do when they have a romantic get away with a 12 year old in the house.
Thought 7) After asking my husband what our plans were for the day and evening, he said that he wanted to walk downtown and see the sites and go to a restaurant. This is when I realized that my knee brace was in the car that I left at home when Jess kidnapped me. I was going to be very uncomfortable walking that far. (I'm not kidding. Jogging is more comfortable than walking right now.)
Thought 8) I don't have a tooth brush or mouth wash or shampoo or a blow dryer. That's ok though, I'll get that when I go home to change in the morning.
Thought 9) I am the worst wife in the world. Any other wife would be excited about this. :(
Thought 10) If he had of told me Friday this could have been nice.
If he had of told me of his plans on Friday, I could have finished the devotion, started the laundry and lesson plans and grading and did some light packing instead of relaxing and this would have been sweet. I hate surprises!!!! We ended up staying until 8pm and then coming home and going back a little while in the afternoon after church. It wasn't awful and I didn't end up ruining his good intentions. How much better a time it would have been with a little notice we'll never quite know.
Update on the current goal of getting my 5K down to 30 minutes. I ran 3 5Ks in 35 min this week. I'm nothing if not consistant. I think I could be faster if I jogged with someone else. After the cortisone shot, I was banned for jogging or Marcela for a week. It was easy to obey the doctor for the first couple of days, but it's getting harder by the minute now that I feel about as well as I did before the shot. Marcia, I don't need an intervention really. I have been avoiding the killer trail since the last indiscretion. The 5k's are on the flat baby trail next to the college.
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4 comments:
I don't know how I missed this episode. I was just browsing through and there it was. So, here is my comment several weeks later. This was kind of sad, but I understand not being prepared for the surprise. I have come to believe that surprises are more for those doing the planning than for the person being surprised. Planning and preparing and looking forward is half the fun. Right? Sure you have to appreciate the thoughtfulness of people who think enough of you to want to do something nice, but sometimes I think the surprise would be even more fun if the person was in on it. When I think about it, I have enjoyed planning surprises more than I have enjoyed being surprised. That says a lot. Who is the surprise really for, anyway. I'll try to keep that in mind.
I know how you missed it. We've both have been up to our neck in students. :( It's nice to be busy, but it's been insane. As for your comment...right on, Sista!!! That's what I was trying to say. I wonder what the doc got out of his surprise for me. hmmmmmm....
In the doctor/nurse scenerio, this was no surprise. You had all that time to anticipate, imagine the worst, and then come full circle to assuring yourself that you could handle whatever might be about to happen. You didn't know exactly what was going to take place, but you had ample warning, time to prepare, to pray, to settle the fright to flight complex and face the worst which is rarely as bad as we initially imagine. This was no surprise. This was a deliberate tactic.
I would say, evil tacticians, grrrrr... except, I guess you're right. I probably wouldn't have gone in if I knew what he was going to do. He did put me back on my feet. It was a good tactic and in my case, a necessary evil.
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