Part 2

Part 2


At 0936 Gloria is still in surgery, progress is good, she’s doing well.

0957 and the woman and two kids left again. I’d prefer they not return, or that they at least take other seating. The older woman in the group is wearing blue jean shorts, cut off at the gluteal fold. I would estimate her age in the mid thirties and I think she is the grandmother to the kids. The acronym PWT springs readily to mind. She looks as if she has a regular seat in a local bar, ill-used, and living out some country music song. I should not be so quick to judge, I suppose. But when I was responsible for children of that age, I made it a point to not allow them to disturb others or to behave inappropriately in public places.

1005 and moderately quiet at the moment. I’m appreciative of small benefits.

The volunteer receptionist here is doing an excellent job of dealing with patient families.

1015 – Surgery finished. 1020 brief post-op chat with the neurosurgeon. He wound up taking disc material he had hoped not to touch. However, he was able to tighten up the ligament at the operative site. Gloria to Recovery and doing fine at 1027.

That’s a relief. All those minor nagging worries that accompany experience are pushed back and no longer of concern. The day is much brighter, annoyances somewhat easier to handle.

We celebrate 18 years of marriage in 12 days and there have been many days spent in waiting rooms with the other of us in OR or other suites. There wasn’t much mention of fear this time except for one evening about a week ago when Gloria mentioned that she was frightened. Now she doesn’t have to be.

1125 – Recovery called and said they were keeping Gloria due to sleepiness. She finally was moved at 1330 to the most remote building in the hospital complex. As of 1410, she has been up out of bed, neuro checks are good we’re waiting to order her diet/meals before I head for home to take care of animals and then turn around in 12 hours to be back at the hospital in time for rounds – hopefully to bring her home.

1530 – home – Grateful dog gets to go outside. Iguanas fed and cooled down. Make the necessary phone calls and watched weather radar. Ugly looking storm clouds in all directions and some distant thunder, enough to upset Loki. No rain falls and the storms seem to break up as they hit the ridges behind us

Gloria calls with the bad news that she is spiking a temp. We both think about the similar happening after her last L-spine surgery in Sarasota. She’s unhappy, uncomfortable, and afraid that this will be a repeat. I’m equally concerned.

I’m really too tired to eat but make a cheese sandwich to meet sustenance needs. I doze through local news, national news, and right up to the end of Jeopardy. Then I’m reasonably awake and start getting ready for tomorrow/today. Loki gets a final tour of the yard. Gloria is still running elevated temp of 102 post acetaminophen dose.

Up at 0415 to travel back to Kingsport. Leftover coffee, OJ, and a biscuit/pseudo-steak before hitting the road.

The 0530 departure time allows me to see a beautiful sunrise. Lots of orange and red clouds and patches of fog in the valleys and low spots. The wipers are necessary for the entire trip but there is less side window fogging than Tuesday. I pull into the parking slot at 0640 and walk into Gloria’s room 5 minutes later.

Her breakfast tray arrives before 0700 and I’m happy to help her relocate the stuff on her bedside table and get set up to eat. The neurosurgeon’s nurse comes in and assesses Gloria’s condition, looks at her pain med usage, checks the wound, and issues post-op instructions. We’ll leave with two prescriptions to fill. At first, I ask her to call them in to the pharmacy in Greeneville but then realize I’d be better off having them called to the nearest CVS so that I can stop on the way home. The neurosurgeon comes in, repeats the assessment, and the process to discharge Gloria is underway. At 0830 she’s dozing but eager to leave. It’s a matter of waiting for paperwork, for discharge processing, and for her part in the morning routines of the nursing unit to mesh with everyone else’s so that we can leave.

It’s a good thing that we mentioned her previous post-op fevers. Hartman is of the opinion that the fever is due to pulmonary causes post anesthesia, common in the first 24 hours post-op. In the absence of a protocol that demands all febrile patients be handed to an aggressive Infectious Diseases department,, Gloria will miss another un-necessary 5 days of in-patient time hooked up to 3rd gen cephalosporins that she doesn’t need now and didn’t need then.

We asked that any prescriptions be called to a local CVS so that we could pick them up on the way home rather than me having to drive hand-written scrips to Greeneville and then wait for them to be filled and return home, leaving Gloria alone. No problem…

Until I called the pharmacy 90 minutes later to check on the scrips. No record of them. Some irritated phone calls from several other people corrected the problem – the call was still in the list of scrips phoned in and not yet responded to.

We arrived home about 1300; Gloria has had most of the afternoon to sleep with no noise from monitors, IV pumps, call buttons, or other hospital nursing unit endemic noises.

We’re hoping this surgery provides some long-lasting stabilization for her back.

For all the good wishes, Thanks much!