I am awake, but my senses are not. The only thing I can grasp is a shrill “Beep – Beep – Beep.” My hearing slowly restarts, and suddenly I am smothered by muffled voices. Harsh fluorescent light creeps dimly through my eyelids. I try to look around, but I cannot control my body.
I race around my mind trying to remember where I am and what had happened. But, for the first time in my life, my mind is totally blank. I freak out. I desperately try to regain my faculties faster. But I fail at every attempt.
I can move my head! In an instant my world is a blur of color. The voices become clearer; their distance more discernible. My eyes try to focus themselves. Colors become more distinct. I know that voice – it is my dad. He is talking to someone – sounds like he is on the phone. The beeping is a heart-rate monitor.

My mind slowly grasps the implications. Then the questions start.
Why I am in the hospital?! What is my dad saying on the phone?! I try to sit up but can barely strain my neck to look over the unidentified mass impeding my vision.
I see a human. My mind does its thing. What knowledge I have says it is my dad. Whoever it is they haven’t noticed I woke up. I try to speak. Nothing happens. I try again: “Ugggghhhh…” is all that escapes my lips. The man I think is my father doesn’t stop talking. I don’t think he heard me. I try to speak again, “Daa…dhh.”
I am now exhausted, but I distinguish the words “hand” and “surgery” from my dad’s conversation. My memory floods back. I just had surgery on my right hand – the anesthesia must have just worn off. Wow, that stuff is totally wicked!