Braunstein Speaks

Interregnum

Tomorrow morning, if all goes according to schedule, I should be deep in anesthesia-induced sleep while a surgical team amputates my leg. Except for a brief anesthesia countdown a few years ago when I had the “wide excision” to remove that first Merkel lesion from my leg, I have no real knowledge about what goes on in surgery.

My wife did a brief surgical rotation many years ago, but she also has no direct knowledge of what takes place in a surgical suite during operations.

My own concepts come from television and movie portrayals of surgeons—such as “ER” and “Chicago Hope.” Although I am pretty sure that they will not have to cut my leg off in the elevator, or “crack my chest,” as they usually do on TV hospital shows, I know from watching police activity in the entertainment media that television surgery is probably about as realistic as television police tactics are.

In any case, I am pretty sure that I will not be able to get a column out tomorrow—or more realistically—for the next few days.

I still have no further knowledge about my length of stay in the hospital over the “three to five days” estimate I was given a week ago. I know not yet where my therapy will take place, but I have an idea of how long it should take my incisions to heal; and I hope I will be back on my feet (foot?) by this summer.

I appreciate your good wishes for my rapid recovery, but for those who laughed about Dick Cheney’s recent heart attack, you’ve wandered onto the wrong blog. Just back out of this page and turn left.

Hope to get back to all of you as soon as possible, and in addition to the ongoing Washington soap opera, I should have some interesting—if not amusing—experiences to write about in the future.

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