Watching the world zip by

When they told me my surgery would take 6 weeks to recover from, I nodded and thought yeah, but I'll be up and around in no time. Nothing like thinking I know more than everyone else who's been there. Even my own surgeon.

Ok, this is not for the squeamish. But since I've had so many questions, I'll let you all know. This is the diary of a madwoman who is now sane. Or at least less medicated. After giving surgical birth to a somewhat large alien being, commonly known as a fibroid. How big? suffice to say that odd curvature of my belly was not the curse of bad genes or bad dieting. Nope. It was a Uterus grown amuck.

So, that being said, we went with an old fashioned hysterectomy not quite 3 weeks ago. No state of the art surgical techniques or fancy robotics for me. Slice and dice as they say. So, it was quite invasive, and took a little longer than they thought. But I had a wonderful surgeon. She was good. She was careful. There were absolutely no complications. From the surgery. Now we did find that there is one thing in this world that I don't seem to tolerate too well. It's called Anesthesia. The nurses loved me. As good as my bejeweled blitz skills are, they don't come close to my speed and agility with a call button.

I learned my mother has a high tolerance for surprises. Like my Linda Blair impersonation when I sat up too quickly. Hubby didn't really go for that one. He's fine when it's on the big screen, but in person it didn't sit well. I learned I have the best kind of friends. So here's a blanket thank you for the flowers and chocolate covered fruit and cards and phone calls. Another thank you for the home cooked meals and visits!

But what amazed me was what happens in the world when you are a spectator not a participant. On day one following surgery, my mother began telling me about plans for Tucson to secede from Arizona and become Baja Arizona. I thought maybe I'd hit the pain pump one too many times.

I came home Friday, slept the weekend away and woke up Sunday to a blanket of snow. Not unusual in February. Except this is Tucson. We don't get blankets of snow. Thought maybe the take-at-home pain pills were stronger than I'd anticipated.

Then our esteemed legislature proposed a bill that would allow Arizona to decide which federal laws are worthy and which ones to toss out. I realized one pain pill wouldn't be enough.

Then that enormous earthquake in Japan. Surprised? Um, no. It's a seismic hub waiting to explode. Always has been. Geology 101 people. What surprised me? How shocked everyone is that their nuclear reactors didn't survive intact. Of course the radiation is leaking. Nuclear power is an energy we as human beings are not yet equipped to harness. And until we are, we need to start looking at energy sources that we can use safely. Solar. Wind. Water. That is my hope. That from this particular tragedy, we all have that aha moment. Where we understand that those Dutch windmills weren't just built so the Dutch masters could have something to paint besides themselves and fruit. Which goes back to the Baja Arizona thing. Solar power here is probably a pretty good idea. Particularly economically.

So while our thoughts are with those who are suffering far across the sea, maybe we can all start working on ways to create a better world. One that doesn't require so much pain medication to tolerate.