Doing Well

Took mom to the hospital yesterday morning, as her checkin was scheduled for 10am (with an anticipated surgery time of noon). After being prepped by the nurses and briefed by the anesthesiologist, who advised us that this operation might take a few hours (and even then I'd have to wait another couple hours for mom to go through post-op before I could see her) I took off. I left my cell phone number with the nurse in charge of my mom, asking them to call me when they were done.

3pm rolled around. Then 4pm. Still no phone call. I was getting a bit antsy. Finally, at 4:45pm I called the hospital. Luckily I still had the phone number of the general surgery department's appointment line onhand, and dialed it directly so they could forward me to the appropriate party. I ended up speaking to a woman in post-op, who told me my mom was doing fine and that she should be delivered to the recovery room by 6:30pm. I was a bit miffed that nobody called me, but I suppose the "no news is good news" maxim applied here-- something that didn't occur to me until after I called.

I fixed dinner for my dad and Todd, then took off-- arriving at the recovery rooms at 6:40pm. I walked into the room and was surprised-- no sign of mom! After hunting down one of the many nurses on duty at that station, I discovered that I had actually beat my mom to arriving there! She was still on her way out of post-op. So I sat in the waiting area for about 15 minutes before wandering back in-- and there mom was.

She looked fine, aside from a bit of jaundice. No breathing tubes or anything sticking out of her. Blood pressure read normal. And she was snoozing away, even snoring a bit. She woke briefly, asked me what time it was and how long I'd been there. She was so disoriented and still drugged up she didn't realize she was in a different room. She kept dozing on and off. At one point she asked me if I'd taken care of dinner, and when I told her I cooked, her eyes widened in surprise (I'm not much of a cook). That cracked me up. When she awoke again a few minutes later, she again asked me what time it was and how long I'd been there. I had to chuckle-- I wonder how much of this conversation she'll remember (if any at all) today when I drop by? anyway, she reassured me that she was comfortable, breathing fine, warm enough, etc...

I tried to find out more about her condition and how things had gone, but since it was after hours, the surgeon was no longer around, and since she'd JUST arrived in recovery, nobody had had a chance to thoroughly review her chart. Hopefully today I can get more answers when I return.

Of course, that will have to wait until after lunch, as I shouldn't bring Todd with me, and there won't be anyone to watch him until Allan arrives from Santa Barbara.

Meantime... I'd better get some breakfast for myself and Todd. I got some library books yesterday (including a really nifty one all about turtles!) so maybe we'll get a chance to delve into them this morning. Also a good way to keep him occupied and prevent him for tearing down the house I just tidied up last night ;-P

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/338056330)