Surgical sedation and the post-op meds tend to induce a pretty thorough retrograde amnesia. I am certain this is a Very Good Thing. But every now and then something bobs to the surface. I remember, for example, trying to explain to the ICU nurse that she and I had just been moving the sofa in my hospital room around. (What sofa? Me?) I'm sure they hear a lot of that stuff.
So today I recalled some post-op point where I had not yet been permitted anything by mouth. Hydration was intravenous. And I was dying for a drink of water. I begged for some water, and they finally gave me one of those little cups of ice and a spoon. Someone, I can't remember who, spooned the ice in. Somewhere in there, I got a sip of water.
Water, in my mouth, then, was like seeing God.
That sense of delight and amazement and revelation and humbling, all at once, came tumbling back today. So odd, how important some things become.