Sighs all around

After holding our breath for days we all exhaled yesterday when the surgeon came out and said that surgery went well. She was given some blood but otherwise everything went well.

They came early for her yesterday as the previous surgery took less time than expected. I brought her up some flowers and a soft teddy bear that she didn't let go of and ended up taking into the OR with her. It was pretty tearful as she said to Kermit, "You have been a wonderful husband. Take care of yourself." Then as they wheeled his bride away, Kermit stood there alone, holding his hat with a horribly lost look on his face. Tears and sobs all around. Even Jess who never cries broke down.

They have a waiting room there that is wholly inconvenient and operated carelessly, I feel, for the family members of people in life-threatening conditions. They have a table set up with coffee (decaf or regular), sugar, creamer and splenda packets and stir straws. They have two phones for the nurses to contact you. The phones ring and it is ENTIRELY up to the family members to answer - there is no staff to answer the phone. (The family closest to the phones ends up being the family that needs to answer the phone for the rest of the room. There is one tv tuned to CNN on one side of the room. I didn't see a computer in that room, although there was in another waiting room that you are either not supposed to use (then why is it there?) or you are discouraged from using. (As the lady at the desk yells over to you, "Can I help you?")

So, after you see your family member off to the most dangerous surgery of their life, hoping that their weak bodies can make it through, you are left in a large waiting room with several other families, also baring their raw emotion and angst.

Our first call came 1 and 1/2 hour after she was rolled away. I know there is much prep and this call simply stated that the bypass surgery had started - first, they have to remove the artery from the leg, then they have to open her up, spread the ribcage and hook her up to the heart-lung machine. An hour and 1/2 later, the next call came. Surgery was going well. An hour and 1/2 later the next call came. All had gone well and they were finishing up. 1 and 1/2 hour later, they said that the the surgeon would be talking to us sometime between then and when she would be taken into her room an hour or so later. The surgeon said it went well and she was doing great! We could smile at that point. We are over the worst... Each day the prognosis looks better and better.

So, I should quit bitching about the waiting room. I will redo it later. Right now I have to cram for my final on Monday and clean between.