I can't believe...

I can't believe that I got to scrub in to two surgeries this week. I got to watch a man have his neck spliced open, his vital arteries and organs pulled to the side, and the insides of his discs scraped out. I watched him be paralyzed by anesthesia, saw the tubed shoved down his throat, watched him gurrgle and regurgitate phlegm as he tried to wake up. Smokers [naughty, naughty] have a lot of trouble breathing on their own when coming out of anesthesia (think chainsaw sounds with snot oozing from mouth).

The second surgery was pretty much the same, except he went in through the low back, burnt out what seemed like a foot of fat, and let me hold the bloody, herniated nastiness as he scraped it out.

Things that surprised me:
1. Nakedness. The staff tries to keep them covered (while transferring them), but how can you really keep a 275lb man wearing a napkin-sized gown covered when rolling him from his back to his front. You can't.
2. After transfer they are completely covered with a sterile warming blanket and they prep the incision site with iodine. You seriously forget there is a person underneath the blanket (unless the surgeon touches a nerve and the paralyzed man twitches and scares the bejeezus out of you)
3. When the surgeon cauterizes fat, it smells just like Kentucky Fried Chicken. I don't eat KFC, but if I did, this would have quickly put an end to it.

I can't believe that Chris got a letter from the USCIS saying "Welcome to the United States: you are approved." He was in the gym when I opened it, and I might have sprinted down the hall, 4 flights of stairs, and practically jumped on the treadmill with him so I could read it out loud. I'm a nerd.

And lastly, I can't believe that I'm "supposedly" running a marathon tomorrow. I say "supposedly" because:

1. I've been training for 2 months, when the recommended training time is 6.
2. I haven't even stuck to the training schedule.
3. I thought I was going to die after 16 miles (which is the most I have ever run)
4. I didn't run at all while I was on vacation for 2 weeks. Haha oops?

Writing that stuff down makes me realize how crazy I am for still going through with this. Oh well!! Wish me luck!!