The "I Had A Dream!" Story

It was an ordinary day. 7:00 AM and the alarm clock is playing my favorite radio station. Still annoying, though. Pushed the "Snooze" for a few more moments to snuggle with my wife. In no time at all the annoying song came back on again. "OK, I get the hint," I said as I reached for the clock and turned the alarm off. Then I said to Carol, "You'll never guess what I dreamt last night!" Her reaction was, "Heaven only knows what you might have dreamt last night. I assume you are going tell me." "Yep," I started. "I dreamt that I had my operation and when I woke and looked at my hand, the doctor had branded his initials under each of the fingers he operated on. Burnt them right into my hand." "You're crazy," she said. "Why would he do that?" End of conversation. The operation I was dreaming about was for the two middle fingers I have on my right hand which, after being closed for a short time, are painful to open. The sheath that supports and covers the tendon in each finger becomes inflamed and swells, not allowing the tendon to move freely. Happens with overuse of the hand. Today I am having both fingers repaired by Dr. David Kuntz who is a finger and hand specialist at Lancaster Orthopedic Group (LOG). Had to be at the Lancaster Surgery Center at 8:30 AM for check-in for the 10:00 surgery. After going through all the necessary prep work, Carol is invited to sit next to my bed in the pre-op room. At 9:45 AM Dr. Kuntz stops by to see me and to explain one more time what he will do to my hand. He then asked me to point out the two fingers that he will repair, just to make sure we both agree on the same two fingers. After I point to them, he gets out his marker and proceeds to mark his initials under each finger!! I looked at Carol and said,"TOLD YOU!" We both start to laugh and Dr. Kuntz looked at us with a puzzled expression. "I told my wife this morning that I dreamt last night that when my surgery was over and I looked at my hand, you had branded your initials under each finger." "Wow," he said. "That's not exactly a brand, but you were right on the money. You have dreams like that often?" "Sometimes," I replied. He smiled and said, "See you soon." Well, the surgery lasted 13 minutes with another half-hour of recovery. My hand was heavily bandaged and I couldn't see where he operated, but later that evening it became necessary to remove the bandage because of swelling and I "peeked" under the dressing and sure enough, there were his initials, still "branded" on my fingers. I suspect they will eventually disappear, but at least I'm not totally crazy. Yet!! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.