I spent the Christmas and Chanukah holidays in the hospital, it was for a hernia. The hospital was quieter than usual, as I expected. Me, well I was extremely nervous. My surgery that was scheduled for 9 A.M. was put on hold, the surgeon had planned on his preceding surgery going shorter. The hospital had placed me in the waiting area by myself, explaining what had happened.   I prayed for the person in the operating room, fearing things were not going well. It turned out he ended up just fine. OK, what about me! They kept me in the waiting area for three hours, all by myself. Things were different in 1981.Finally I heard the nurse say; "We're ready for you now Mr. Stelman.   So my gurney was wheeled into the operating room. Man alive, was it ever cold! I thought they had taken me to the morgue. Suddenly my body began to shake all over, I shook so badly that my body lifted itself two feet above the operating table. My doctor raced over and asked if I knew his name. Upon me saying his name correctly he yelled; " Put him out, now!"   Waking up in recovery, I was "out of it." In fact, I was out of it all night. Anesthesia was quite different back then. After a few days I had to go to the surgeon's office so he could how things were doing. I told he that I had two things I had not figured on. 1- I had numbness going down both legs. He said; "You can see I only cut you on one side, I don't know what is causing that." We went on to my next question. 2- I feel like I'm walking with one foot on the sidewalk and one foot in the street. Once again he answered by say; "I have no idea what is causing that, keep an eye on it." Duh, did I have a choice?   These problems continued, and I couldn't even be a pall-bearer at a friend's funeral. He had died because of a brain tumor, you'll see later why I told you that.   To be continued.