Well, another long, long day. Margie wasn’t scheduled (likely) for surgery until the afternoon, so I worked from home (with a jaunt up to the Blands to bring Kitten some school clothes and say howdy) until Noon, then headed up to the hospital.
Sat around for a few hours, until Margie was finally told she would be taken down to pre-op, as the surgery in her semi-scheduled OR was wrapping up. (St Joe’s doesn’t reserve ORs to time slots on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but does on MWF.)
So around 4:30 or so, Margie’s bed was wheeled off to pre-op.
And sat there for, oh, 2+ hours.
The Orthopod who would operate on her came by periodically. He apologized that the OR was full of, well, folks with complications and then folks from the ER that had priority. For some reason, the hospital gives precedence to abdominal bleeding and ectopic pregancies and other ER niceties over broken bones. The nerve of ’em.
Finally, about 7, it became clear to the powers that be that we weren’t getting into an OR any time soon. So Margie was reserved for tomorrow (a Wednesday) at 7:30 a.m.
While the doc was there, Margie mentioned our plans to fly out to California a week from Thursday, the 17th.
The doc indicated that, no, that wasn’t going to happen. Factors include that she has post-op treatment needed after about 10 days (including transitioning from a splint system to an actual cast), plus, so soon after surgery, lethal blood clots were a concern in flying.
The doc left open the possibility that we might — might — be able to do the flight to Hawaii on the 26th, but the 17th? No way.
Which meant that we would not be able to be in California for Margie’s parents’ 50th anniversary on the 19th.
Which really — after a day of delays and disappointments, no to mention pain and no food — was sort of a capper for Margie. I.e, she was very, very upset.
We got wheeled up to her room. An intern came in. Margie was thirsty, but the intern wasn’t sure she was allowed to drink anything, and would have to check with the RN on duty. I noted that Margie really needed some food, too. She said she’d check with the RN.
A CNA came in. The same requests got passed on.
Another CNA came in a bit later. She started off by noting that the floor food orders were now closed …
… at which point Margie, after a day of frustration and pain and disappointment and no food, sort of lost it …
… but that she, the CNA (Thelma Louise, if you can believe it) could run down to the cafeteria and pick up whatever Margie wanted, which I helped provide, and she scurried off.
[Redacted]
Ultimately, food arrived and was consumed. The RN on duty (once the shift change was complete, and, damn, why is it that whenever Margie arrives in a room, it’s the middle of shift change?) came in and got her both some pain meds and some jello. Things settled down, but Margie was clearly exhausted after two days of stress, pain, extremely intermittent food, and general disappointment and stress.
*sigh*
I headed home shortly thereafter (it being a bit after 9).
So … thinking in contingencies …
- We can’t fly on the 17th.
- But maybe we can drive. Though, as I’d be the sole driver, we’d probably need to do it over 2 days, rather than straight through. Or maybe the train?
- Currently, still looks like we can go to Hawaii — but would need to change our flights, with the complication of flying out, oh, right at Christmas.
- Margie has follow-ups she needs to do after surgery. But … there is Kaiser Permanente in SoCal (with a KP hospital within relative spitting distance of her folks’ house. Can she go out to California before her post-op meeting and getting a cast — and have that all done at KP out there?
Also, need to consider (this is for me) Margie’s setting here at home, once the surgery finally (eventually) takes place, and how I need to set things up, and what she’ll be able to do, and so forth. Which basically means turning the downstairs into living space, since she really won’t be able to get upstairs.
*sigh*
Stay tuned …