Granny Panties and Hugging Nurses

I saw my neurosurgeon last week.  He was pleased with my progress ... very pleased.  Score 1 for me :)

I was expecting the visit to be just a conversation ... how are you doing, how's it going, how's physio, are you working yet, and maybe a quick walk around his office.  Well, ... no.  He wanted to do a series of tests to see where my strength/abilities are.  That, in itself is fine, but it involved the absence of jeans and socks and the wearing of a paper gown. 

I'm used to that (and more) with my family doctor, but this is my neurosurgeon ... a fatherly kind of gentleman, who is not hip/sick/hot in the least!  Intellectually I understand that he saw most things that there were to see during surgery, but I was out cold for that. So when he left the room saying "take off your jeans and socks" I did the mental inventory of "what am I wearing today".  While paper gowns are not glamourous, it was fine, and apparently I'm doing very well considering the extent of the surgery I had.  All I can say, though ... is thank goodness I chose to wear granny panties and not some lacy scrap of a thing that day !!

I went from my neurosurgeon, across the street to the hospital to visit with my physiotherapists and any nurses that might remember me from rehab.  As I walked into the hospital and through to the rehab unit, I realized that I had never actually walked those halls ... my coffee runs to the coffee shop had always been in a wheelchair, and I left in a wheelchair.  It was an interesting mix of surreal and nostalgic.

My rehab physio guy no longer works there because he got into medical school.  I was sorry to miss him and pleased for his success.  But the killer guy ... the guy who made me stand on a leg I didn't know I had (see Use the Force Luke), was there and remembered me.  It was nice to be able to say "look where I am now and I couldn't have done this without you".

And ... wait for it ... I hugged a nurse :)  The guy who plopped himself in my room and told me his life story (the "why not to date a supermodel" guy). 

Going back made me realize how far I've come since May 31st, and how much the people there started me on my road to recovery.  They change lives and I'm grateful.