We live about an hour away from the hospital when you consider that we have to park and walk into where the operating rooms are. It was necessary to go to bed pretty early on operation eve since we had to get up pretty early the next day. Of course, they wanted us to show up at 5:30 AM.
I wasn't worried at all because Ms Donna had had a laminectomy years ago and she woke up from the surgery remarking how pain free she felt. She said the night before going to the hospital that "Tomorrow at this time you're going to feel great".
Great.
That's great. This dang pain has been bothering me for 6 or 7 years.
I went to bed early.
One of our dogs, Deena, decided that she needed to get sick. She's good enough to let me know so I got up and let her out. Then waited for her return. Then went back to bed. Then she woke me again and we did it again. She did this maybe 4 times. Sometimes dogs just throw up. I think they continue to throw up because they often eat it.
Then about 11 or 12 all the living room dogs went crazy. I yelled for them to shut up and they didn't. They got more insistent. I looked into the living room and saw them all intently barking at the front door which means that there's somebody there. So I opened it and looked out. The Sheriff was there. "Let me get some pants on".
I did.
Then went out on the porch to see what he wanted.
We have a gal who sort of lives with us. Gwen She's handicapped and lives in an apartment that is connected to our house and separated by a car port. Gwen has her own caretakers but we check on her as much as we can. I had just been there earlier that night to walk her dog Baxter.
The Sheriff wanted to know if Gwen lives here. I told him that she did, she lives in the apartment over there. "Is she O.K?"
"Yea, I guess so. I was over there just a little bit ago.
Gwen had been sick for the last few days. She had a caretaker come by to check on her and they did some things and took some drugs and everything seemed to be getting better. Gwen's doctor had checked the lab turned in the bye caretaker and found that Gwen had some kind of problem that needed hospitalization. The Sheriff didn't know that. He just knew the the doctor was worried because he had been calling Gwen and she hadn't answered. He was worried.
I took the officer over to her apartment and he checked on her and found her to be O.K. And he left. It seems she wasn't as O.K. as she thought. The officer didn't know that the doctor wanted her to go to the hospital. He left and apparently sent word back that she was O.K. Later that morning, while me and Ms Donna were at the hospital, Gwen's doctor sent an ambulance for her. She spent a few days in a room in the floor below mine. Donna went home after my surgery to take care of the dogs and found Gwen gone. That was her first clue.
On Surgery Day I had to get up and fed the dogs and chickens and had the special surgery shower but not eat. "Nothing by mouth after midnight". So we left the house at 04:30. Dogs all put away for the day and watered apologized to.
We got there at 5:30 and they put me in a room where I discarded my civilian clothes and became a patient. They stuck me and questioned me.Took some blood. Hooked me up to stuff. Then, nonchalantly, they wheeled me down the hall and suddenly Ms Donna kissed me goodbye. Ooh. Here we go. I wasn't nervous at all, really. We wheeled down a hall and I waved at all the masked creatures we passed. The wheeler stopped me outside a huge door and rang a bell or called or whatever, to notify someone that we were there.
A masked female came to talk with me. She didn't talk much. I did. I always do.
The opened the door and I said "Is this the place?"
She said "Yes".
It was the OR. Never seen an OR before. It wasn't like T.V. I expected to see glass walls in an enclosed room with people sitting up there to watch. I don't know why my backside would be so popular for people to watch but that's what I've seen on T.V.
It was a huge room. There wasn't a bed that I could see. I was on one but that was all. There were large round lights suspended from the ceiling. There were masked people in sneakers and pajamas whipping around like they had things to so.
Next thing I knew a nurse came into my room and said "Well there you are".
I assumed it was over.
I was wrong.
The surgery was over. The effects were not.
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