Mad About You: Bfth's Crazy Brain

Last night I was in bed flipping through the channels on the tv, like I do just about every night. I used to wonder how my mother could climb into bed to watch tv and then fall asleep; now I know why, it just happens.  Or usually it does.  My evening ritual is to turn on the tv, find something that I like, watch it until a commercial and then flip to something else, then maybe go back or flip to something else.  This continues on until at one point, I stop watching and fall asleep.  (Sometimes I turn on my right side, which is a sure sign I'm about to sleep.)  But last night, this didn't happen and I settled on a Mad About You channel.  (Pluto tv has all sorts of weird and sometimes wonderful channels.)

I liked and watched the series when it was on in the 90s.  (Perhaps seeing some slight parallels with my own life as I met and married my husband during the show's run.)  I hadn't seen the show in a long time, which is where my brain craziness kicks in.  What follows is how my crazy brain works and what I ended up thinking about instead of sleeping.

When was the last time I watched this show? June 2008. I can't be 100% sure but I do believe it was the evening of Monday, June 2nd.  How do I know/remember this?  Because it was what I was watching the night before I went in for my hysterectomy.  I SHOULD remember the exact date of that, but I don't.  I only remember that it was the first week in June; shortly before my birthday. (Hey, what a great birthday gift.) 

 I'm pretty sure I went to work the day before, or at least for part of the day before the surgery.  I had to come home earlier than usual because my doctor wanted me to do a bowel prep the night before.  I had gone to CVS and picked up my prescription; a packet of cherry flavored "stuff" and a container that looked like it should carry several gallons of gas.  I remember drinking it; or trying to drink it.  I know I didn't down ALL (what seemed like endless gallons) of the stuff.  I couldn't.  It sat in that glass.  I drank and gagged.  I did the best I could and NOTHING happened.  I ended up calling the doctor and telling her that it didn't seem to be working and I couldn't do it and she was (reluctantly) okay with it and then, while TRYING to watch Mad About You it started to work.  So I watched bits and pieces of the show for hours while I ran back and forth to the bathroom.

My surgery was scheduled for early the next morning.  I don't remember much about that or the days that followed.  I know my mother went with me to the hospital.  I know when it was all over I ended up in a single room (maybe it was a double, but I was the only person in until the day I left) on the maternity floor.  I know I had a pain medication button on my left side and that I gripped that thing so that I wouldn't lose it.  I know that my team from work sent me an edible arrangement that I'm pretty sure I never ate. (Though I did call and thank my boss for it; the afternoon after the surgery when I was pretty drugged.)  I remember being brought food that I could not eat.  (Not sure why the hospital didn't understand my allergies.)  I remember having my parents bring me pretzels, and along with the hospital supplied ginger ale that was all I ate until I went home on Friday.  (And I definitely remember my husband giving me Taylor pork roll on an English muffin that day.)  I know I didn't lose a pound, even after my uterus and its baseball sized fibroid were removed AND after vomiting numerous times due to an incredible recurring headache.  (I think I was given tramadol, which was the only thing that helped.)  I know my pastor came to visit me every day and the pastor at my son's preschool (who also was somewhat of a friend) came to visit twice.  I can remember watching Family Guy in the middle of the night because I couldn't sleep.  I remember FINALLY getting to take a shower and wash my hair (oh, my greasy mess that was; I used the entire mini-bottle of baby shampoo) the morning I went home.  And finally, I remember my parents bringing me home, slowly climbing up the stairs and into bed, eating the previously mentioned pork roll on an English muffin and watching The Sting on TCM before falling asleep.

In the 5 weeks that followed, there were several times I wanted to go back to work, but couldn't.  (By the time I started to feel good/myself I didn't WANT to go back to work, but I had to.)  I walked up and down the block slowly many times.  Had a wonderful neighbor who brought the family food and took my son to her family's pool where she watched over and fed him.  (Because she was an amazing woman and natural born nurturer who I will always miss.)  Managed to go to my son's pre-school move up ceremony (moving in the fall to the 3 year old group).  Dealt with a power outage by having my parents drive up from the shore and bring us down where there was a/c and then having them drive us back the next day.  (Because of course the moment we got to the shore, the power was miraculously restored...after hours of oppressive heat.)  We saw local fireworks since we couldn't go away for 4th of July.  And lastly, I did some "illicit" work (because you're not supposed to when you are on short term disability) the weekend before I went back to the office (where things had changed in the weeks that I was away, but that could be a story for another day).

All of these things flooded my brain last night and kept me awake way past my "bedtime."  (Which is usually pretty early.”)  Several mugs of coffee this morning helped me put all of this onto the page along with episodes of Mad About You.