When life hands you lemon (flavored lollipops)

Many years ago I had some minor surgery. (I was in and out of the hospital in the same day). I have all sorts of random memories about it: They gave me red slipper socks I got to take home with me. The hospital gown was big enough to wrap around me almost twice. As they put the mask on me I said "Waiiiittt" and fell asleep.

When I woke up there was a bespectacled, smiling man with a thick accent saying, "Would you like a sucka?"

I was still very groggy from the anesthesia and did not understand him at all. "Whaa?"

"Would you like a lemon sucka?"

As I struggled to make sense of this he smiled and held up a package of lollipops.

I nodded although I couldn't really move.

He took the wrapper off the candy and put it in my mouth.

I sucked on it for a little while before realizing the weird texture wasn't just because my tongue was numb. The "sucka" wasn't really candy. It was a piece of gauze on a stick that had been infused with lemon juice. But it was still good.

A short while later the smiling man reappeared. "Would you like anotha sucka?"

I nodded again and he took the dried gauze-on-a-stick out of my mouth and put in another one.

It wasn't until much later I thought, "He was a hospital employee right?"

And "Wait, I'm allergic to lemons."