• Notes from the surgi-center

    Methinks the invention of the outpatient surgery center is the best thing to happen to Western Civ since artificial flavoring. I can’t substantiate this claim. I can’t explain myself. I didn’t give it any more thought than it took to move my fingers across the keyboard.

    That’s right. I’m in random thoughts mode.

    How is this any different than the other 23 hours of the day, John?

    Do you say ah-loo-min-um or ah-loo-min-ah-min-ah-mum? I find it best to alternate randomly between the two – to keep folks on their toes, but your mileage may vary. Mayhaps you don’t find it necessary to say aluminum at all, but who asked you?

    Oh yeah, that’s right.

    I’m anoyed by my own phone making noises when I type. It’s the first setting I turn off on a new phone, or whenever someone lets me borrow their phone. Man, does that piss people off. So imagine how I feel in the surgi-center lobby, surrounded by folks (who otherwise had the good sense to buy an iOS device) with the clicking sound turned on. If I close my eyes, I can almost imagine it sounds nothing like an old-school news room.

    What?

    I miss having my daughter around. That’s not meant to be funny.

    Deep, yeah?

    Why am I at a surgi-center on this fine Thursday morning? It’s nothing serious so don’t worry. I’m the designated driver for someone having an injection for back pain – an injection of the going deep kind.

    An epidural? Why didn’t you just say “epidural,” John?

    Hell if I know.

    Potty mouth.

    Did you know surgi-centers are the new coffee house for the 21st century? I’d swear I recognize half a dozen folks hanging out over by the window. Coincidence? I wonder how often I could pull off coming here to hang out, drinking the free coffee, before someone called security?

    Is that them now

      

  • CRAP!

    Sorry for the potty mouth, but I just realized my last few updates from yesterday somehow didn’t make it online. I didn’t mean to leave you hanging – like it seems I did – and I feel bad. I did most of this from my MacBook (trusty MarsEdit), but I switched to the WordPress app on my phone after I left the lobby/waiting room.

    Everything I did on my phone somehow didn’t make it. Worse, the changes I made from my phone this morning (adding a link to a new post this morning) seems to have erased these updates. Well, here’s what I wrote… for what it’s worth (now), as best as I can recall.

    I’ve also updated the post from yesterday here – so you can see the updates in their context.

     

    2:06 p.m.

    It’s been a long day yet it seems it’s only a little more than half finished. Cheryl’s sleeping for the moment and I’d really like to do the same.

    I’m ready to call it a day. I’ll post something brief tomorrow to let you know how she’s doing.

     

    1:45 p.m. (recovery)

    The bandages are striking. I’d like to post pictures but Cheryl’s likely reply (if I could ask) would go something like this:

    Divor… no… death… would be too good for you, and not nearly good enough for me.

    If I DID post a picture without asking would likely involve something I can’t discuss on a family website.

    Alas, I give in to temptation.

     

    1:15 p.m. (recreated from memory and post fragments I could pull from my phone)

    I finally got the call. She’s in recovery and awake enough for me to see her. I’m on my way up.

  • Going home

    Cheryl is going home. Without going into too many details, the doctor had to cut more, the surgery took longer, and there’s more pain than expected. That said, this procedure was purely cosmetic (to cover the larger than expected hole in her head), so the prognosis is excellent, and she’ll have hair over all of the spots on her head where you’re supposed to have hair.

    Best of all right now, we’re going home soon. She’ll be in pain the next couple of days, but hopefully it will start to subside sooner – and mostly, she’s managing it now.