Home After Gimp Surgery, And Thoughts on KFC..

Hey folks! I'm back, after FINALLY getting knee surgery yesterday in the lovely town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, home of the famous Howard Dill pumpkin Patch and the birthplace of hockey. Not that I got to tour around much, considering I arrived when it was still dark and when I left I was unable to walk.

Of course, almost an hour and a half before my scheduled surgery time, the nurses decided it was time for me to get into my johnny shirt and paper booties, probably because it tickles them to see you shuffling around the place trying to hang on to your dignity with one hand and the back of the robe with the other. All around me in other little curtained compartments I get to listen to other patients describe their ailments to the nurse, something I really wish I didn't need to be privy to. For example, I know that the nice older man I shared the waiting room with had his vasectomy in 1999, and that his bowels had been rather loose recently. On the bright side, I got to wear the hot 'n sexy paper slippers...

The surgeon at one point ran in and asked me a few questions, drew this letter F on my knee and than ran out again. None of the nurses could explain what the letter F was for, so I can only assume it meant Fucked Up.

The surgery went fine, except for the fact that the anesthesiologist couldn't get a catheter into my vein. (I have small, delicate, lady-like veins that try the patience of the nurses every time I need to have blood taken.) She ended up putting it my forearem and it leaked, so today my arm looks like a purple snake about to give birth.

Here I am after the surgery. You have to give me props for daring to post so unattractive a picture, having no make up and what appears to be a triple chin.

I was out of there within an hour and half of the operation. Turns out, my problem was not a classic "bucket handle" tear of the meniscus...(I guess I'm not a classic after all.) Nope, it was
medial condyle fracture. Do I know what this means? Not really. Apparently, it's this ball of cartilage that had a piece broken off of it and hanging, kinda like slicing off, not quite all the way, the corner of a dinner roll. Anyway, they shaved it off and trimmed it up, and I should be paying basketball within a week. Ok, maybe not. But it definitely feels like whatever was wrong is right now, and they gave me some heavy-duty drugs so I'm feeling no pain.

Pretty gruesome looking, huh?

I was SO hungry after I finally made it out there, I insisted we stop and get a bite, and handily there was a KFC restaurant right around the corner. We each had the vegetarian sandwich combo...

These things are so fucking good that I would sell my own children to get one. (I'm exaggerating, but not by much.) The first time I ate one, I ate it in teeny bites, poking it with my finger and eyeing the workers suspiciously to see if they gave me a real chicken burger out of spite. They are so real, it's kinda scary.

I've been having them occasionally since they came out in July, but before I did, I had to think long and hard as to whether I was even going to try them. There are two ways to look at this new menu offering, and I teeter tottered between two views. On the one had, KFC obviously only did this to get PETA off their back. It was not exactly a concern for vegetarians that prompted them to go this route. As well, some argue that KFC didn't go far enough because the patties are still cooked in the same fryers as the chicken. Thirdly, the fact that they seem to refuse to promote it makes me very suspicious. I wonder if they actually want to sell so few of them that they go go and throw it in PETA's face that no one even wants a veggie option at KFC. I mean, fifty percent of the KFC's I've been in do not even have it listed on the menu.

It was this last thought that made me decide to buy them. It would be ideal if they could cook them separately from the chicken, but realistically, how many restaurants really have the space or the finances to have extra fryers just for this purpose? So that really does not bother me. And I want to show KFC, (and other restaurant chains as well,) that there IS a market for veggie items out there. McDonald's used to have a veggie burger and then took it off the menu for lack of support. I don't want this to happen to KFC too. Maybe next Wendy's and Arby's and Subway will also jump in with vegetarian options. (Subway here does not have the veggie patty available elsewhere.)

So that was the choice I made, but I also respect the choice that others have made to not purchase these burgers, because there certainly are valid reasons not to. For any other Canucks out there, what route did you choose? How did you arrive at your decision? I'm curious to know how others have resolved this little moral dillemma.

In other news, I'm going to go now and lay on the sofa. Have a great day everyone! Peace..

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Update: In2insight, by posting my thoughts on the KFC patty, I was inviting a dialogue on the issue from different points of view, not soliciting hateful comments. If my choice offends you to the point that you cannot even read my blog anymore, by all means feel free to browse those blogs written by far worthier folks who rival your level of dietary purity.

And if you think that you're going to eat in anthing other than a restaurant serving purely vegan food, (never seen one, myself) I think you're deluding yourself if you think your meal always comes to you having never come into contact with an animal product on the grill/spatula/frying pan.