Welcome to Tessa's blog

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Back to work

It was very boring to stay at home those two weeks after the surgery. My colleagues missed me. At least I think so, because they sent me two large bouquets of flowers and two boxes of chocolate. Very nice of them. The wound is healing the way it should and the doctor is happy about the result. My biggest problem is the fact that I'm allergic to plaster of all kinds. I have tried about five different kinds but it doesn't help. The kind of sticky tape for sensitive skin I was recommended was itching so badly I removed it after only a few hours. You are really supposed to have some plaster on the scars for three months afterwards but the doctor told me to ignore that instruction. The itching would have made me crazy.

I did get some things done during my sick-leave. I went to a mall once and visited the archive center twice. There are always projects to do there, this time I looked at sailor's records. My great great grandfather sailed the seven seas but I have never looked him up in the sailor's lists. It wasn't as difficult as I thought, but the information given was meagre. The only thing I didn't already know was his listing as a cook onboard. I also asked for some old tax records and managed to write incorrect information on the call slip. It meant that they couldn't find the material. Slightly embarrassing. I hope the staff didn't understand that processing call slips is a large part of my job...

Today I returned to work. It wasn't overwhelming. I have just done some minor tasks like talking to people, making plans and answering e-mails. I was given three requests my colleagues hadn't been able to process and solved two of those cases. Heavy lifting is out of the question, so book retrieval is not possible right now.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Operation

Last week I worked Monday and Tuesday, basically tidying up my desk. I managed to hand in a report also, which my boss had asked for. Tuesday evening my father arrived. This was not the plan from the beginning but my mother got health problems and couldn't come. Early Wednesday morning my father dropped me off at the hospital. After a long series of examinations, tests and medicine I was wheeled in to the operation room around noon. It was quite an experience. They sedated me and I was completely out until a few hours later. I was of course in pain when I woke up but that was all. I thought that I would be wiped out for days afterwards. This was not the case at all. The surgeon came and told me everything had gone according to plan. My father came to get me at 6 PM and we went to the pizza place in my town. Not something I thought we could do either, just a few hours after surgery. But I was not so affected by this experience as I had anticipated. Thursday afternoon my father left again, after watching a (according to him) very interesting reality show about American loggers in Maine on TV. My father hasn't had a TV in about a year, so he doesn't know what there is to watch these days.

Since then, I have tried to take it easy. This Friday I went to the hospital for a check-up in the morning and stopped by work to join my colleagues for the morning coffee and sandwiches. Everybody was surprised to see me. I can understand that, since I had given warning I would be away for some time. Apart from this, I have mostly spent my time watching TV, solving crossword puzzles and reading that book about the DNA background of Europeans. It's quite interesting, I have to say.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Train trouble

I didn't get that much done this past week. I had three doctor's appointments. It takes a lot of time. Most of the week I tried to clear my desk and get at least some of the many projects done. Success was limited. The high point of the week was Thursday evening, when we had After Work at a nearby restaurant. It's nice to talk to the colleagues outside of the workplace.

Friday was a bad day. When I got to the train station at 7 AM I learned that all the trains were cancelled. Not only the next five departures or so, but all of them the entire day. Part of the track had a large crack and it was in a very inconvenient place because they needed to make all the train tracks in southern Sweden powerless before they could fix it. They didn't have any parts for it either. They had to do the repairs overnight. I was able to get onboard one of the regular buses instead. It was extremely crowded but we made it. I arrived about an hour later than normal. The janitor gave me permission to borrow the storage round car that evening. I made good use of it and transported some of my research home (those files with paper tend to get heavy). I also made a stop at the grocery store. Saturday morning I had to drive the car back again. So I spent the day at work to do more research (and yes, it produced even more paper documents).

In just a few days it's time for my operation. It may take a while before I get any writing done here.