First Painting After Surgery

"A Pair" 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard

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  This piece is a little more colorful than usual for me.  Maybe I still have some anesthesia in the brain.  I love the stuff they give IV just before they roll you in the Operating Room.  I ponder how these anesthesiologist's stay sober.  What a temptation they face every day.  They are special gifts to mankind and most of them are humble.

One of the two that worked with me carried a backpack.  It does not hold books.  But it does hold the tools of his trade, serious drugs.

I'm going to be 61 later this month.  I'm the Baby-Boomer generation and it's hard to see my generation retiring and being replaced by thirty-something docs, but this fellow looked to be all of 24.  When I first met him, he looked like the hippies I grew up with... the long hair, full face beard and otherwise 1st year med student demeanor brought me to the conclusion he's way too young to be taking care of me.

Before he arrived though, Those older more experienced medical personnel must have told me three, going on ten times... everything that could go wrong, what the percentages are, of things going wrong... where they are going to insert catheters and shunts and I was over the edge with fear.  The young anesthesiologist observed something the others have learned to not pay attention to...I was crying.

And he took pity on me and told me, he could see I needed some help to ease my nerves.  And he gave me the medicine that warms your body and brain...Rest, blessed rest from the torment of impending surgery. 

I tried to paint yesterday, but alas, too many days away from the studio and it was a scraper.  But today's piece "A Pair" I'm so very pleased with.