Sunday, June 24, 2012

Under the Surface

Recently, undergoing surgery, I found myself in recovery coming out of sedation talking away to a recovery nurse. I found myself having a very coherent conversation complete with giving her instructions on how to properly felt a tote, which yarn to buy and which type of washer to use..."no, a front-loader wouldn't work, need a top-loading machine to properly agitate the tote...get Cascade 220 because the tote will use alot of wool and you don't want to waste your good Noro wool on the whole tote...Here's my email, I'll spell it out for you. My Ravelry name is..."etc. She agreed to tuck a note in my bag with her Ravelry name. I heard her say to the other nurse, "This is Jeannine, she's a nice lady and she's a knitter." Then I felt the puffy blow up pillowy thing they use to lift you up and transport you to another bed. "She's helping," they said as I tried to help scoot over. I learned several things through this. After checking the bag later when I got home, that yes, I did really have this conversation and it was not a figment of my imagination. I did confirm this was truly a real person on Ravelry days later when she replied to my "friend" request to my delight!
I also learned that while under sedation, our brain can still bring up things that are cemented and of value that we have committed to memory. That we can hear things that people are saying. This is a lesson to those nurses out there that we really can hear what you are saying even if we seem to be in a medicated stupor!
It is also an eye-opener that what we value as important, will come to the forefront of our mind, even when we are not coherent.
When we were younger, it was so much easier to memorize poems, songs and scripture. And those things are all still there, right under the surface. A comfort, if we were to ever need to draw on them in time of need. Our minds, body and spirit work together in an amazing way.