The house is very quiet with the twins gone, and I’m too consumed with dental pain and intermittent lip swelling to think of anything witty to say. In lieu of original content then, here is an email from back when I was younger and funnier.
From: Kirsty Jordan
Sent: Friday, 23 September 2016 2:52 PM
To: Wellington Anaesthesia All Staff
Subject: On the nose
Hi All,
The following week is a week two, and hence has been scheduled by my office buddy, Chris. Unfortunately, he’s away today, learning how to teach surgical registrars how to recognize if a patient is sick – a worthwhile endeavor, certainly, but it does mean he’s not here to explain the schedule.
I’m not going to be here to get my schedule out next week, either. I’m going to be recuperating at home after having surgery on a very sensitive part of my anatomy the day before: my nose (repairing damage from an old fracture). This poor organ has suffered a great deal lately. If anyone has noticed that my nose has been a different colour to the rest of my face in recent weeks , it’s due to makeup inexpertly applied to cover the ravages of efudix. My surgeon prescribed it to remove a solar keratosis, a precancerous lesion resulting from a childhood without sunblock (and absolutely not age related). The plastic surgeon I work with was very surprised to hear I was using this; he thought I was very brave. Not encouraging. Certainly the results are rather alarming – something like a drastic chemical peal, it looks like someone’s been at me with a blow torch. Luckily it should settle down over the next few months. Sigh.
Anyway, I’ll send out a provisional schedule early on in the week, so keep your eyes out for that if you want to know what’s coming up in your near future – and particularly if there’s anything you want me to fix before the official version comes out on Friday. I realized today that I hadn’t managed to indicate which theatres have our new Drager anaesthetic machines this week, as Chris has done so expertly. Hopefully by the following week you will all be familiar with the locations of the Zeus machines: if you’re unsure, just follow the sounds of alarms and swearing.
Had an interesting and not too rugged weekend on call last weekend (thanks, team). Managed to do some sorting at home – we now have an excess of furniture if anyone needs something? Some needs going soon, and some once we leave Karori in December(ish), including three single beds. Seems teenage girls all need double beds these days. Beds make a good spot to study and cuddle up with your soft toy collection I suppose.
Don’t forget to put your clocks forward an hour on Sunday morning (spring forward, fall back). Lovely long Summer evenings ahead, but it does mean you have to get up an hour earlier for work.
Cheers,
Kirsty.
NB here’s an old photo of me immediately post op after my nose job, demonstrating that general anaesthesia doesn’t impair brain performance at all.
