Saturday Catchup

I spent a few months in hospital last year after my below the knee right leg amputation. This inclulded a few days in an induced coma, and on heavy medication. In one of my hallucinogenic dreams, I wasn’t allowed to go to the hospital bathroom alone because “my faeces were so toxic they would poison the entire Sydney water supply”. In another drug-induced dream, I was convinced one of the nurses was planning to blow up the hospital

In common, Tom Nash in the book “Hook, Line, and Sinner,” describes some hilarious coma-related dreams while he too was in hospital. He also describes the weird situation of being in a coma and knowing a little about what what going on around him, but not entirely. I totally understood what he meant when he said, you know “when you’re being talked to and when you’re being talked about.”

My friend Andrea gave me the book before Christmas because she thought I would be interested in Tom’s story as a fellow amputee. And when I say amputee, his situation was a little more dramatic than mine, having had both arms and legs removed due to Meningococcal disease. She also thought I would like the book because the writing displays such a great level of self-awareness, and such a great sense of humor.

Andrea interviewed Tom for ABC Radio a few months ago and introduced us to each other in the foyer of ABC Radio Sydney. We chatted briefly, with a laugh-out-loud moment where we noted we had seen each other with a double take earlier in the day in the foyer of the ABC in Ultimo. I was having coffee with a colleague, Elizabeth Wright, who is also a Paralympic swimmer. Though not an amputee (she was born with different length limbs), she wears prosthetics. “For a moment, I thought it was amputee’s day at the ABC,” Tom joked.

I’m not exactly sure why I’ve been holding off reading the book, though I’m sure there’s something deep and psychological going on to explain why it has remained unread. Although some friends have given me other books and readings about the experiences of amputees, I’ve also been holding off on reading them also. The other books and readings probably fall into the category of “inspiring stories,” about people who’ve lost limbs in dramatic circumstances but have then gone on to climb Mount Everest.

Jokingly, Tom says this book is not an “inspiring story of someone with a disability”.

The book is in three “acts”: life before contracting the illness, his experiences in hospital, and his reflections on the amputations, and his life afterward.

His early life involved a childhood in South Africa and the United States before finally settling in Sydney with his mother, after his parents separated. His early life wasn’t particularly extraordinary, aside from the anecdotes about teenage drug and alcohol use (nothing terribly extraordinary) and setting up his own small business along with a friend.

On starting university, he began working at a pub in Balmain, and it was during that year that he contracted Meningococcal disease, a severe, often deadly disease. In Tom’s case, much of the skin on his body, especially his arms and legs, was impacted. Effectively, the skin “died,” which led to the amputations.

He was in the hospital for many months, including being in the burns unit, due to the impact of the disease on his skin. His descriptions of the pain he experienced throughout, including when the wounds were dressed daily, are confronting. At some points, he said he considered suicide. He also described the dedication of family and friends, including his mother who was there every and helped with the wounds dressing.

The book also describes his recovery, includintg his first experience of dating a community support worker who was assisting someone assigned to help with him. He describes the apprehension he felt about whether or not he was still sexually attractive to women due to the amputations, but he also comes across with a lovely self-confidence that he should give it a go, nonetheless. The relationship lasted a few months.

The third act of the book describes the years after the medical procedure, and how his life is now, aged in his early forties. I won’t go on with the plot, except to say Tom has a good story to tell.

Tom has a lovely writing style that is engaging, with a lovely sense of self-awareness, and a wicked sense of humour. I really loved reading this book on so many levels, and even if you haven’t had an amputation, it’s still a great story. I actually bought the audio book also, and Tom has a lovely voice that tells the story with such great authenticity.

And even if Tom says it’s not the “inspiring story of someone with a disability,” I found it so.

Highly recommended.