CHONGLAND

Last Thursday the 10th of September I went under the knife to have an Arthroscopy and an ACL reconstruction. I was booked as the second in the operating theatre, so it was an early start, arriving at the Sydney Adventist Hospital (SAN) at 7am. After heading to the Day of Surgery Admissions area, my Dad and I sat down to wait for things to kick off….

First up was the Anaesthetist who took us off to run a patient history and check to make sure that what was planned in the drugs department would be alright. Then it was back for a short wait before the clerk took us through the admission, mostly paperwork and money….

More waiting before a nurse took me through to be weighed, changed and put into a bed to wait to be prepared for surgery. This involved getting my right knee and surrounds shaved, washed and sterilised, and having a teds stocking on my left leg. Not long after that a porter came and took me upstairs to the operating floor, saying farewell to my Dad in the process…

After being placed in the operating queue, I was quickly whisked away to the outer operating room, kind of like an air-lock on a space ship. The Anaesthetists came and stuck a catheter in my left arm and then it was into the theatre to see Dr Hope, with a few last minute checks, like which knee was being done, it was G.O. time. The last few moments of consciousness began with the words “Think of your favourite place on earth“, my inner monologue went along the lines of “What’s my favourite place on Earth?? I wonder if Heaven counts??“…..

The next thing I know, I’m in the hospital bed in a ward with an oxygen thingo in my nostrils, a drip in my left hand, and little to no feeling in my legs. There’s also a cord with a green button tied to my right hand, which I soon work out is the pain relief drugs…. Throughout the afternoon I became accustomed to my new surrounds, drifting in and out of sleep…. I also worked out that intravenous pain drugs and I don’t mix particularly well when they make me vomit up any water that I’d drunk…. It kinda felt like the hamster experiment where it tries to eat the food with an electric current through it. After a couple of attempts, it just leaves it alone, preferring the hunger to the shock. I preferred to put up with the pain than to vomit and get hot and light headed. The nurse did offer a shot in the bum OR a pill up the rear to stop the vomitting, but I quickly refused those too… It was a shame that the nausea was still present at dinner time, resulting in a watery dinner tray, because the only mouthful of soup I had tasted very nice: a creamy tomato soup.

The night went very slowly, drifting in and out of sleep and having the nurses check oxygen, blood temperature and feeling in my toes every once in a while…. When the morning finally arrived we got breakfast and I was very relieved when I was actually able to stomach it. The cornflakes with apricot halves and skim milk, wholemeal bread with marmalade and Orange Juice went down nicely. Then the discharges started, with all four guys in my ward being discharged that day.

My discharge was the longest: After Dr Hope came and saw me, telling me how happy he was with the surgery and that he wished all his patients were like me, the nurses finally came round to unplug all the tubes and whatnot…. and then when they went to take the dressing off of my leg, we found out that the bandages over the stitches had soaked through, so they needed to be re-dressed, which took a bit of time… Then the Physio came to give me some exercises to do and teach me how to walk on crutches…. Her phrase for stairs was helpful, but not quite right:

The good go to Heaven, the bad go to Hell

meaning that when approaching stairs, the good foot goes up first when ascending them and the bad foot goes first when descending. Then it was another wait for the pharmacist to tell me what drugs I had to take, one for anti-inflammation and a pain-killer. And then I had to wait for my Dad to come and take me home…

Since I’ve been home I’ve been in bed for most of my time, sleeping and watching television…. I’ve had to battle my way through some headaches as well, mostly just with sleep…. On Sunday Mike came over to visit in the afternoon which was enjoyable.

On Sunday night despite wanting to go to church I wasn’t able to, but I did attend via Skype and was able to hear the majority of the service. Wazza spoke on 2 Peter 2, and I was able to catch up with a couple of people after the service through the chat window….

So for the remainder of my time off (2 more weeks) I plan to:

• read
• write – specifically my Engage posts
• some design work – CHONGLAND, and maybe SALT
• play games – Marvel Ultimate Alliance comes out soon and I’ve a copy on order
• setup some computer stuff, if my body allows for it

Thanks goes out to all that have been praying for me during this time, it mean alot and I love you for loving me in this way

As one outcome from Engage, I’d mentioned during an interview at church that I wanted to be more intentional in things of the gospel, especially at work.

One of the guys from work, Ron, was at Engage last year and again this year, and in our recent floor relocation happens to be on my floor now as well. I’d planned to catch up with him, reading the bible and praying together. When I mentioned it to him, he said that he was in the process of organising a study with several guys from his church to get together, read & study the bible and pray on a regular basis and asked me if I wanted to join them. Naturally I said yes and invited Josh along to join us. The plan was to get together on Thursdays, starting this coming Thursday, but since I wouldn’t be around due to my knee, I thought it’d be a good idea to meet up over lunch as a get-to-know you thing.

The 5 of us got together today: Ron, Josh, Sam, Gordon and myself, over lunch at Ryans Bar for pizzas and got to know each other and start to plan out how this would all go ahead and prayed over these and other things. We plan to look through some Psalms with a rotating leadership on a weekly basis. I’m quite excited about it all, and partially saddened that I won’t be able to get along for a fair few weeks.

If you’re in the Sydney City, towards the north end of town, free on Thursdays between 12:30 and 1:30 and are keen to join us, drop me a line or a comment and I’ll supply you with some contact details, doesn’t need to be regular, I’m sure we will welcome any visitors with open arms and bibles. If you’re not able to join us, we’d love for you to partner with us in prayer.

A couple months ago I wrote about potentially imminent changes to my working life in either:

• My position conglomerating with another
• A new job

I’ve now had outcomes on 90% of this, so I can report back….

Firstly the job that I had applied for, I wasn’t successful in my application.

We have moved floors in our building down to a newly renovated level 4. My seat is in the quieter end of town, so I tend to get more work done… The views aren’t as good as our previous level 23, where we could see the water, now it’s just office buildings all around, but a few of the parents who have children in daycare are able to see them when they come out to play…

My position is combining with the securities clerks to become Business Banking Officer. This unofficially happens from today. The three of us have been assigned to work with 2 directors out of the 6 on the floor. I’m quite excited by it as it lessens my workload in terms of the jobs I was doing, and I get to learn about securities…
There’s been no official indication on pay changes, but that should change…

The only downside (in terms of work) is that I will be taking a leave of absence due to my knee reconstruction from Wednesday this week. I’ll be away for 2 1/2 weeks then back to work for a few days before on leave for another couple of weeks for Awesome (our annual youth camp) and some time in Melbourne for Semi Permanent. Most of my learning securities will be when I’m back from holidays in October…