The Night Before

Here I am the night before.  Awake.

It's not that I probably can't go to sleep.  I am just not really wanting to.
I can't eat anything.  I can't drink anything.  It's after midnight.  I just really don't want to go to bed.

For those of you who don't know. (And I am sure that most of you don't.)
I am having minor surgery in the morning.
I seem to have damaged a nerve in my left arm.
And before you go jumping to conclusions, it is not "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome".
I looked it up. "CTS" is when the nerve that runs down the Radius bone, through the wrist and palm of your hand gets damaged.
You feel numbness and tingling in the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and thumb-side of ring finger.

I have damaged the Ulna nerve.  Otherwise known as the funny-bone. This runs from your shoulder, around the elbow and follows the Ulna bone to the outside of your hand. (Hence the name "Ulna Nerve")
I have numbness and tingling in the pinky finger and that side of the ring finger.
With both, you eventually have loss of movement and muscle in forearm, hand and fingers that are affected.
I have lost dexterity and grip in my left hand.
Just my luck.  That's the hand I write with.




The funny thing is that I damaged the nerve playing games on my computer.
(Wife will never let me live this down.)

So, tomorrow I will wake up with the farmers.  My wife will drive me to the surgical center.
There, I will fill out a bunch of paperwork.  Get blood drawn for the anesthesiologist. And then get knocked out while they cut open my arm and try to relieve the pressure on the nerve.
Then I will wake up.  Get dressed and come home.  Where my wife will give me my medicine and put me to bed. So I can heal up and get back to normal living.

Sounds simple, right?
Then YOU do it. (You're saying no, aren't you.)

Now you may think that I am scared about getting knocked out.
Did it before. Wisdom teeth. Woke up fine.  Almost convinced my Mom to let me drive home.
Scared about the surgery?
I've been through worse at a younger age. (story for another time.)
Scared of the pain?
Not really.  I have a high tolerance. Plus, pain goes away...... I hope.

I have resigned myself that I am getting older.  Thing happen.
I will have to go through a lot in the coming years. (Remember, I do have kids.)
This is just something I have to do and get over with.
And I will have a great scar to show for it. (Chicks dig scars)

My only hope is that I can have the full use of my fingers and hand when this is done.
Because my pinky seems to have a mind of it's own some days.

Now that I have gotten this off my chest, I am going to bed.
I will wake up in the morning and face this challenge head on.
Come out a little poorer, a little wiser, and a little sleepier.

And while I'm going under will think to myself.  "Chicks dig scars"