For the first time in my life, I'm now only mostly human. Yesterday I had hernia surgery and got a plastic mesh implant to help strengthen the hole in my abdominal wall where the plumbing for my testicles passes through. In a nutshell, the hole is supposed to be tight (only enough to let the plumbing through), but can weaken and the intestines try to push out. This is a Bad Thing, and about 2% of men end up having surgery to correct it. It's also what hte "turn your head and cough" routine during a physical is checking for.
Fairly minor procedure, but definitely no longer the same. Will see as time goes on, but it's quite obvious that there's something not natural in there; something that doesn't stretch and move the way flesh is supposed to.
On the plus side, I get a day or two of vicodin-induced haze, during which I don't have to do any hard-core coding. Probably will work on a couple littler personal projects that don't have any great emphasis on working perfectly the first time, since I'm not sure what kind of "interesting" design characteristics might come out of my inability to concentrate.
The doc said 2-4 days to be mostly recovered, and six weeks to totally healed with as much strength to the reinforcement as there will be. I've been pleasantly surprised at smoothly everything has gone to this point. Only major discomfort was getting out of bed this morning, because I think the patch had partially pulled away from the abdominal lining and was poking something or other. But that was quickly fixed with some wiggling around to get everything back in the right position.
Hope you heal quickly, completely and peacefully.
Love your blog postings…usually quite a bit over my head, but I do enjoy the wit, and the thoroughness they exibit along with good explanations…they inspire me to learn more.