Hospital Day...

So this morning (Thursday), mom had to be at the hospital before 7:00am to do some tests before her surgery. The doctor had said that the surgery MIGHT be late afternoon. Tracey (my sister) and I arrived at the hospital about 11:30. We ‘tagged off’ with Phil so he could go and run some errands and get some lunch.

Mom was in a bed in a ‘waiting’ area while we waited for them to come and get her for the surgery. Mom, Tracey and I gabbed and tried to distract mom from the aroma of food that seemed to be everywhere. She of course had had nothing to eat since 7:00pm on Wednesday.

Phil got back from his errands/lunch about 1:45ish. At this time, Tracey and I went and got some lunch for ourselves. We didn’t venture far, just the hospital cafeteria. Tracey was leaving after lunch as she had a doctor’s appointment and was going to come back and get me (we came together). When I went back to the ‘waiting’ area, Mom and Phil were gone. I was thinking GREAT – they have taken her to surgery – BOY was I WRONG!! They had taken her to her room. I was pointed in the direction and I found them pretty quickly. After about ½ hour, the nurses came to transfer mom to the bed in her room. We got her settled and asked when we could expect to be called for surgery. They told us they would come and get her when they were ready. So we waited, and waited…

Tracey came back to the hospital after her doctor’s appointment and she waited with us…Tracey and I had dinner plans with Kathleen (our cousin) and we didn’t want to miss them. So we were doing all the calculations…if they took mom now, she would be back in her room by this time, if they took her at this time, she would be back in her room by this time etc…

We figured, they were going to come ANY MINTUE to take her to the surgery. Tracey and I left the hospital at 4:30 – being pretty sure that they would come and get mom within the ½ hour…

We met and had dinner with Kathleen and called Phil for an update about 6:30…they still had NOT taken mom in…

As it ended up, it was about 7:45pm, before she had her surgery. We knew the surgery would be about an hour and then about 1 – 1 ½ hours in recovery after that. Well we wanted to make sure that we were there in her room BEFORE she got back. Tracey and I whipped home for an hour, I got to see my husband (I was beginning to forget what he looked like) and then back to the hospital. We were sitting in mom’s room by 9:30pm waiting for her to come back.

FINALLY at 10:45pm, they wheeled her back into her room. She was exhausted of course and just wanted to have something to eat and drink. She just wanted a piece of toast and drink of water. The nurse said that mom couldn’t eat ‘cause it might make her nauseous, mom said her stomach was unsettled BECAUSE she was hungry. I was FRUSTRATED – my mom has lived with her body for almost 70 years, and this nurse had ‘known’ my mom for all of 2 minutes and she was telling her what her body was doing. I understand that the nurses have a job to do etc, but when someone is telling you something about their body, they should be listened to as they know more about their own bodies then someone else does. For mom at that point, it had been 28 hours since she had had so much as a glass of water!! Mom didn’t want us to argue with the nurse so we let it go and got her settled for the night and got home about 11:45pm.

Well apparently the surgery when good and she had good bones in which to screw the screws and plates into – that’s a good thing I guess!!

We are hoping/thinking that mom will be released in the morning and we can get her home and settled.

PHEW - WHAT A DAY!!!