Recovering from surgery

I woke up around 6pm last Thursday with that pleasant, woozy feeling that is produced by wonderful medical chemicals. My knee surgery lasted about 3 hours and they found four problems (including 2 unanticipated) to fix. But at the time, all I knew was three things:
1. I was cold and couldn't get my voice to work (to summon nurses) or hands (to pull up the blanket). I lay there shivering.
2. I couldn't unclench my jaw. (Perhaps related to being too cold?)
3. I was having trouble breathing. Luckily a mask helped me take some deep breaths...and I thought about various fishing trips with my dad to calm my mind.

It was a good experience. Makes you feel deeply the lack of control and the fragility of the body. The hospital staff were good and I was back in my room by 7pm (surgery started around 1pm). Went home the next evening. Enjoyed several days of good sleep. A week later, there is little pain in the knee although I have to keep the brace on for 5 more weeks.

The boys are a little perturbed that I can't swing them around like normal or climb up to the roof. They do like the 'robot' leg and have requested me to get them some. Asha has started standing up a lot and continues to use her two words: "dadadadada" and "mamamamama". I'm not supposed to lift things, but I'm making a small exception for my baby girl! Needless to say, Libby is tired since she's in the last month of the pregnancy and we're both VERY grateful that her mom arrived last week to take care of all of us.

Silence means...

Usually silence on a blog like this means one of several things:
Increased busyness
More stress
Sick kids

In my case, it is all three. But the good news is that tomorrow is a long-planned ACL (knee) surgery. When you're the father of several small kids, the only real way to take a vacation is to schedule a surgery. Although I'm not looking forward to the pain and rehab, I'm very much looking forward to being put to sleep and having nothing to do in the hospital for two days.

Neighborhood DJ

I returned from a tiring but welcomed trip to rural India last weekend. It was good to be reminded of the challenges of 75% of India's citizens. The classic moment was when we were told to detour by police at a checkpost. Apparently, some villagers were blocking the road ahead because they want the road improved so that it will be ranked as a national highway.

This morning the annual celebration for a local temple began. They hook up loudspeakers to electricity poles throughout the neighborhood and broadcast a live singing session from 7am-10pm. The chanting is interesting at first, although a bit loud. After a while it either becomes white noise or a grinding headache. It depends on the quality of the musicians and the volume that the guy at the sound board chooses. It lasts for a few days. I wonder how it will turn out this year?

Shashi Tharoor, former top UN official and now a politician inside India, often observes that religion is anything but private here. Here is my favorite article on the topic of general noise levels in India.