Recovery

Today's prompt: Write about a time you recovered from something...or recovered something.


Almost exactly a year ago, I was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery.  Over the course of a few days I had grown an abscess the size of a softball on my lower abdomen that had attached to a lymph node, but it wasn't positive that's what it was until they got in there to take it out.  It caused a terrible infection, I was in a lot of pain and was just all around miserable.  I spent a few days in the hospital and was sent home.


It is surprising to me how many people undergo surgery when it isn't essential.  This experience was one of the most frightening and the recovery was quite long.  Not only does it affect you physically, but being on so many pain medications and your body trying to mend itself quickly seems to add a lot of emotional strain.  I did not feel myself for at least a month, and this was considered a fairly routine surgery.


However, Erik was the most wonderful person throughout all of this.  Because the abscess had to drain, they left the wound open and it had to be packed with gauze everyday.  We hadn't been together long, but he stepped up to the challenge of doctoring me (as disgusting as that nasty gaping wound was).  That was when I knew how great he was.


So while surgery may be a terrible experience, it does have it's bright moments.