Surfergeeks

Alrighty. I’m more rested now. As I mentioned in the last post, it was a brutal day yesterday. But, before we get to that, let’s step back to Wednesday night. Melinda was in town for a final night of drunken bowling at Palasad before packing up and moving off the the U.K. for two years to teach. I had planned on having a great time that night but then my Mom gets the call that the surgery is first thing Thursday morning. So I didn’t figure I’d be out too late now that I have to be at the hospital at 6am. Yeah, so we ended up basically closing the place. Never did get any bowling done though. Just sat around talking. It was great to see come current and former Stream people out. Being off on parental leave, I don’t see too many people. Tim made it out, as did John & Laura. Liz came out for a bit with her friend Terry. Kate drove in from out of town in absolutely horrible weather to have some drinks with us. Chase & Tony made it and brought along Tony’s girlfriend Michelle. We had an absolutely amazing time. And, for those of you that know Ledawit, NEVER let her hold your passport! (j/k Ledawit – the way I hear it, it was a shared responsibility!)

So, 5am rolls around and the alarm goes off. My mom picks me up and we head off the hospital to be there for 6am. We get registered and are sent down to another waiting room. After a few minutes there, we’re taken to the surgery “intake” room. There, my mom had to get into the gown, and into the bed. A nurse came along and took some blood, started an IV, etc. So about 7:40 or so they take her away and I wander back the waiting room to wait. Well, actually, I wandered up to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. After waiting for the cafeteria to open, I had their version of the Bacon ‘N Egg McMuffin and their version of a hashbrown. Meh. It was food. I needed food.

The surgery was expected to last between 4 and 4-1/2 hours. So I had a while to wait. I sat down and broke out the laptop. Unfortunately, no wireless signal anywhere in the hospital. Which really sucks. It would have been a lot easier to pass the time playing poker. So anyway, I read through Barry Greenstein’s book, Ace on the River. Excellent read. I also played some World Series of Poker video game. But, mostly, I waited. And waited.

Around 1:30 the Doctor came out and let me know that the surgery went well. He believes that the cancer was localized and that he excised it all. She was just being moved into recovery and it would still be a couple hours yet before she was awake. He recommended (and my stomach whole-heartedly agreed), that now would be a good time to grab a bite to eat. So I headed up to the cafeteria to make some phone calls and have some food.

After that, I headed back down to the waiting room so I’d be there when they called me. I waited. And waited. You know, this makes me realize, “waiting rooms” are quite possibly one of THE MOST apt named places on the planet. As we approached 3:30 every time the phone would ring, I’d expect the volunteer to call out my Mom’s name. Nope. Then he’s done at 4:00pm. They put the phone up on the desk and expect us to answer it. So around 4:20 the phone rings and some dude answers it. As he’s talking to the voice on the other end, I see my Mom rolling by outside the room. They stop and come in and retrieve me and we head up to her room. They get her all settled in and I get to visit for a bit. While, actually, I suppose I could have visited until 8pm as that’s when visiting hours end but my mom was still VERY much out of it. When she wasn’t sleeping, she was hard to understand due to the drugs. I left the hospital around 5:15 or so and headed home.

when I got home, I talked to Nikki for a few minutes, played with Alex for a few minutes, Called my Aunt & Uncle to let them know all went well, then went to bed.

I slept until about 11:00pm when Nikki came to bed. We talked for a bit then, being wide awake, I got up and caught up on the days ‘net activities before heading back to bed around 3am. Fortunately, Alex slept in today until 8am. So, I’m up. I’m still a little bit tired, but definitely more rested than I was yesterday.