Operation & UB again :)

I woke up this morning deaf on one side - with an ear full of gauze drenched in some kind of antiseptic salve. Plus two stitches. I had some surgery yesterday.


No big deal, and nothing urgent - just a harmless gland in my ear that had gone ballistic, but it has now been forcefully evicted on the grounds of blocking the passage... The entire area had to be sealed off, cleaned with alcohol and sedated. (THAT was a weird sensation, since my hearing disappeared along with all sense of feeling in the ear.) Due to my twisted head position all I could see was the machine measuring my pulse, and I had the mixed pleasure of following the progression of my pulse (beats per minute) as I laid down (66) to the mention of the sedation needle (78) to the entrance of the surgeon (99!) to the moment the sedation kicked in (88) to the middle of the surgery (69-77, which I experimented with by breathing in different ways) to the stitching (72). Afterwards, I had a funny numbness behind the jawline, and was totally deaf on the right ear for the entire evening due to the highly effective gauze-and-salve earplug the surgeon had installed.

Taking the gauze plug out this morning was visually hilarious... It unravelled as I carefully pulled it out, and was apparently a very compact piece of work because it just NEVER ended. It resemed that magician's trick where you pull a seemingly endless ream of cloth from someone's ear, which was literally what I did. That tiny gauze strip was endless. It surpised me so much that it began to show in my face, and when I caught sight of my expression I gave a snort of laughter, which punctuated the sudden end of the gauze. So now, I can hear again, and anyone who peers into my ear will probably wonder why I decided to replace the bump with some very conspicuous black hairs. Ahem, the stitches come out next week.

The evening ended in the best way a monday can possibly end: the amazing, amazing Umbilical Brothers (look here, here, here and here) came back to Gbg yesterday (JOY!!!) and I went to see them again with a gang of 7 people. We laughed for 2 hours straight (I managed to perpetuate a most unladylike habit of *SNORT!!*ing with laughter whenever there was a quiet lull...) and I'm still feeling up, up, up from the experience. That is just... so ... God, they are talented.

I am ze grateful and very happy cookie.