The surgery seems to have gone well. We won't know anything for sure for a week though; they have to send samples off to pathology before we know what the next steps are.
You know, I always liked E.R., but I never really understood exactly how unrealistic it is until I sat in the waiting room of one for 7 hours. The impression you get from watching E.R. is that hospitals are full of unusually good-looking people with screwed-up relationships, putting aside their differences and heroically saving lives. But from what I saw, it's actually full of people like us; bleary-eyed slobs with mental states alternating between worry and severe boredom. The only hospital staff I saw were volunteers (green coat), security guards (black shirt), the occasional nurse (blue coat), and this one guy in a wheelchair who spent an hour hacking his lungs out before someone finally found a bed for him. I probably have TB now, thanks a lot.
When we were finally allowed to go back to the post-op room to see my sister, it was even worse. She looked OK and everything, but the room was awful. Imagine a long, narrow room, no windows, lit by florescent lights. There are 10 beds all in a row with nothing but curtains separating them. The beds face a row of cabinets and sinks on the other side of the room. The cabinets are full of notices urging organ donation, sign-up sheets for continuing education classes for nurses, and schedules. The sinks look dirty and a few of them drip. Someone has brought the Krispy Kreme back with us, and I notice it's sitting in front of a trash can with a biohazard sticker on it.
After we finally got back from the hospital the rest of the day passed uneventfully. Everybody passed out for several hours. I woke up feeling that sense of confusion that usually follows a too-long nap; uncertainty about the time, mental fog, crankiness.
My sister slept too and afterward seemed better than we expected considering she'd just come out of surgery. (I would have been howling for codeine.) She was still a little groggy and a little sore but otherwise seemed alright.
Around 6 Mom and I went to get some takeout and brought it back to the house. We ate and then just sat around, not talking much, semi-watching bad TV. Going to bed seemed like the most efficient way to fast-forward a few hours, so that's what we all did.
I'm ready to go. I wish I didn't have to travel to one of my company's other sites tomorrow - prefer to get back to the X and the vortex.
