Subject: RE: BS: Curmudgeon's Cancer Surgery 2-23-2010
From:
GUEST,Bat Goddess in Boston
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 06:28 PM
Ah well, please bear with me. What I'd really like to do right now is scream -- but there's certainly no place private around here to do that.
Tom is still in PACU and it looks like they are going to keep him overnight, but that hasn't been decided quite yet, nor where he will be when they DO decide.
Thanks at least partially to that defib suck, etc., they've decided he took a bit too long to come out of the anesthesia and is more tired than he should be (though it's the same degree of tired he's been since they readjusted the defib). And his oxygen levels have been low -- that's the main thing, I guess. He's been on oxygen all day and the level sinks when they take him off. He was on a nebulizer when I left a little while ago.
I'm exhausted -- waiting is exhausting, and that's what I've been doing all day. First in Wang 309, then Gray, then back to Wang. Dr. Z only talks to people at Wang 309. Then I came back to the hotel for a bit. Then I went back to Wang 309 where they told me there hadn't been room for Tom to come back from surgery there, so he was in PACU. So I went there -- couldn't take Tom's stuff with me because they said it was too heavy for me to carry (bulky jacket, etc.). So up to PACU. Tom was awake, but just -- and, of course, not particularly talkative. So another hour went by waiting for Tom's gear. Finally I decided I might as well go get it since I didn't have to deal with my own jacket, purse, etc. Did so -- over to Wang 309, then back to PACU. Keep in mind, the whole Mass General complex is like 3-D chess so I'm up one elevator, down another, schlep halfway across the hospital (well, closer to 3/4 of the way), up another elevator; repeat backwards.
In between I decided to pay Kendall and Jacqui a visit. Kendall was resting, but Jacqui and I had some quiet conversation. And I got to admire the view of Boston and the Charles River from the 19th floor -- spectacular. Before I went back down to Tom, I stopped at the patients' lounge, too, on 19 and admired the wraparound view there. Wonderful.
Then back to Tom. He's restless, but his O2 levels still not great and they can't decide whether to do an x-ray and some other analysis, etc.
They kicked me across the hall into the waiting room for awhile (gee, is that waiting room 3 or 4?) and then let me back in 45 minutes later -- they'd forgotten about me.
I guess it got down to whether he'd be under the responsibility of the surgical team or the medical team -- in a room somewhere. I think it was finally decided the medical team, but then the medical team had an emergency to deal with and said they'd get back to the PACU.
Sooooooo...here I am again at the hotel's biz center and it's now almost 6:30. I've been up since 4:14, was at the hospital at 5:45. Spent the whole day there with a short trip over here (twice). Got to call them at some point here and find out where he's going to be and then go over and see Tom again before I can come back here and collapse into bed.
Who knows when he'll finally get out of there tomorrow -- and what train we'll be able to catch home. I probably need to take another clonazapam, but I'm afraid I'll fall asleep on the spot and I can't do that yet, no matter how much I'd like to.
Sorry for the whining, but I am really really tired.
Stopped to pick up something to eat before I got to the hotel -- got a Thai chicken wrap that turned out not only to have not really been "wrapped" but wasn't cut in half either. (If if it had been, I suppose, I'd have two halves that weren't wrapped. Sigh.)
Gotta go. Maybe eat some more of that unwrapped wrap. Call the PACU and find out where my darlin' is.
I certainly hope I can give you all more info tomorrow morning.
Linn
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sj
