looking forward

Had a funny moment today when a patron asked me if I was getting to take any vacation at all this summer. I replied that I'd be out for a few weeks in August, having surgery, and she gave me a very sympathetic look and said "That's no fun!"

I had to restrain myself mightily to keep from exclaiming, "No, actually, it's going to be fantastic!"

That's not normally the attitude one has towards surgery, I suppose. It gave me a funny reality check to remember that this exciting event that I'm looking forward to with such immense anticipation is an undertaking that many folks regard with feelings more akin to dread. Surgery, including general anesthesia, and the subsequent recovery period is generally no joke. It's amusing to me to realize that I'm going to feel like crap for a significant period, even as I'm happy and thrilled and relieved.

I'll need to be careful not to overextend myself in my excitement in August and early September...really, for the rest of the fall. Luckily, I've got the feeling that I'll have good people around me to keep any eye on me, and keep me in line.

Had a moment of wondering, too, how I was going to explain my surgery to folks who don't know me very well- the Social Work students, basically. Then I realized that I don't have to. Surgery explanations and medical histories are very private things in this society, and it's perfectly acceptable, and indeed, preferable, in some instances, to keep them on a need-to-know level.