Typical

Hubby just asked me how I am today, given yesterday's traumatic experiences, and it made me realise something about myself.

When I was a little girl, maybe 6 years old, I had to go into hospital for surgery. And one of the things I remember most about it, is that at one point I woke up, still in the operating room, and I saw all these doctors around me, wearing face masks, gloves and surgical caps and other items of OR-clothes.

Today, with adult hindsight and experience, I know that anesthetists wake patients up immediately after surgery, before even taking them to the recovery room. But back then it was one of my most traumatic experiences ever: I thought I'd woken up in the middle of surgery! I remember that I closed my eyes immediately and willed myself to sleep. My mom still tells the story of how the nurse came to her afterwards, all nerves, to say that she had trouble waking me up.

But strangely, that event made such an impression on me that it still holds true for me now: if something bad happens to me, my first reaction is to go to bed, curl up, close my eyes tightly and sleep until the bad things have passed by.

And that explains why I'm currently at work, trying to keep my eyes open, and stifling a yawn every two minutes.

How typical is that?