Sleep Medicine

**THIS ONE IS IZZY WRITING. She wrote this as an essay last year in sixth grade and I had planned to post it later but it seems fitting for today. It’s her thoughts on anesthesia, something she’s probably had more than one hundred times in her life. Honestly, it fits in the timeline anywhere. She is asleep in the MRI machine as I speak but today’s experience was not what she describes. Due to Covid restrictions, I was not able to be with her. Please keep that distinction in mind as you read her words. **

I am on the flattest bed I have ever layed on with a circle shaped memory foam pillow that made me feel like my head was laying on clouds. My hospital gown all the sudden got really uncomfortable and too tight in the back and the strings that were tied in a knot to keep it on touched against my arm feeling like a snake getting ready to make a new home right by me. The nurse walks in and asked if I was ready to go. My palms got sweaty and I felt like I was going to puke my guts out but some how I held them in and the little people in my head took control and said yes.

I look over to my mom with so much fear and sweetness in my eyes that was getting ready to explode into tears, but that did not happen. Instead, I held back my tears and gave my mom a thumbs up and my mom says to the nurse: I think we are all ready to go. The nurse pulls my IV pole along with my bed out into the hall and we go down the hallway but about half way down I spot a security camera with tons of pictures on the wall like lions, tigers, zebras and way more. But then I see a picture of this dog and I know this dog. His name is Chevy, a golden retriever with super soft fur and poodle like ears. I remembered how smart he was. He could do all sorts of tricks and he would visit me every day to see how I was doing. I see a mirror with the reflection of me in the bed, the nurse pushing me and my mom is in the background. The nurse says we’re here and I start to panic and start breathing really hard. But my mom suddenly holds my hand and instantly I calm down.

There were at least 8 doctors in the room. One of them I recognize. She came into my room earlier to check in on me. She was a girl with long wavy brown hair and hazel eyes ,wearing green scrubs. Everyone in the room was wearing the same thing. But almost all of them were wearing different hats, the hats were paperlike with designs of puppies chasing butterflies, Simba and Mufasa and many more like Tom and Jerry. Another one of the doctors there, I saw him earlier. He came in to ask about allergies, he was a boy with black, short hair that looked like he definitely put gel in it to keep it down. He had green eyes, the color of grass and perfect eyebrows. I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head and run away when I saw this huge machine with at least 1,000 buttons. It had a heart rate monitor with wires hanging down that have very small pictures of kittens playing with a ball of yarn, I assume that they are going to go on my chest. Next to the heart rate monitor was something almost like a green balloon. I’m not sure what it does but I think it must have pretty good reason to be here.

All the doctors gather around me with my mom holding my hand as one of them puts a warm blanket on me. One of the doctors grabs a weird mask that has a tube that connects to the green balloon thing. One of the doctors that came into my room before to ask me and my mom some questions, she asked me what flavor I wanted for the mask. I said cherry and the doctor grabs a red bottle with a cherry on it and sprays it in my mask. With my mom still holding my hand the doctor puts it over my mouth and holds it down, it did not really smell like cherry but I did not say anything. The mask starts to feel weirder and weirder, I try to keep my eyes opened but all these things are going through my mind like: who am I, where am I, what am I doing here, what day is it and who are you…finally, my body lets out and I fall asleep. I have learned from this experience that life is hard and weird and unfair but don’t ever give up.