Down Time
by ::G @ 2010-02-21 11:37
There are less worrisome ways to engender down time, that's for sure. I took Friday off to accompany Giada to her surgery. (Previous notes on Giada's condition: last February, March, and this January.) Following an evening of teleconferences on Thursday, 18:30-19:30 and 20:00-21:00, both of which I had to present in, I called the Mayo number as directed to obtain the time to report to St. Mary's in the morning. The time, 09:00, dictated how late we could feed Giada, as the pre-surgical information indicated that she was not to eat later than eight hours prior, nor have any non-clear liquids later than two hours prior. Given that Giada gets cranky when she's hungry (like most people!), we decided to keep her up and feed her as late as possible, and then get her up just before 07:00 to have her drink something.
We got to St. Mary's only to wait for an extended period of time. We were in the lobby for 30 minutes until someone came to take us upstairs. The room wasn't ready yet, though, so we were led to a waiting room. Our first nurse came by to ask us a bunch of questions and measure Giada's vitals. After another half hour we were led to the room. There was a play room there and we went to look at the aquarium. One of the Child Life staff mentioned that they had some props that could help get Giada accustomed to the gown-of-shame and the anesthesia mask. A couple minutes after the nurse set up in our room, Giada was called to the pre-operation room. We were there for a good hour. The pre-op nurse gave Giada some Versed with Acetaminophen, which was supposed to relax her, and for a while it worked. However, at about 11:30 she remembered that she was hungry and went on a rampage, flopping around and making an appeal for sustenance. She got so ornery that I had to hold her because Sachie couldn't restrain her. Of course we were a bit irritated because if we'd known it would take so long, we could've given her apple juice (which is classified as a clear liquid, as opposed to orange juice) to get some calories and take her mind off of being hungry.
Giada went into the operating room at 12:04 and was there until about 15:26. That was a long wait! I went to the cafeteria to snag us some lunch, and after a couple hours of waiting we both kind of passed out in the waiting area. I was barely conscious when they told us at around 15:00 that surgery was over and completed successfully. Not too long after that, the specialist Dr. Kramer came out to give us a post-op debriefing. He reassured us that everything went very well, with a bit of recap what we already knew about the conditions of the re-implantation, i.e. that due to the complete renal duplication on the right side there were two ureters, so he had to re-implant three instead of two.
Afterward as we were getting something to drink they sent someone to get us: Giada was awake in the recovery room and apparently wanted "mama". She looked fragile in the hospital gown with three tubes (IV, catheter, and epidural) and 3-4 wires (for vital signs) protruding from her. Sachie held her while we got the anesthesiologist's sign off (she vaguely reminded me of Sarah Jessica Parker). Thereafter, they put Sachie in a wheelchair and took us back to the room. There we've been for two days, as I write this.
We did a lot of sleeping, which was nice. I don't get enough sleep, unless forced to take down time either by illness or other event. Friday morning and afternoon were stressful, but the rest of the weekend has been pretty relaxing. Giada's recovering well, it seems, so potentially we'll be able to go home this evening. Sachie and I have mixed feelings on that: since they just took out the epidural this morning and will be taking out the catheter this afternoon, it seems like it'd be worthwhile to monitor Giada a bit before discharging her. We'll be paying our deductible anyway, so another day in here is no skin off our noses. (That clearly demonstrates how our current health care system is not free-market, and why socialized medicine will cause medical costs, which would have to be paid out of our taxes, to further balloon.) On the other hand, I'm sure that Giada would like to get home as soon as possible, so if they tell us we can go, we will.
We got to St. Mary's only to wait for an extended period of time. We were in the lobby for 30 minutes until someone came to take us upstairs. The room wasn't ready yet, though, so we were led to a waiting room. Our first nurse came by to ask us a bunch of questions and measure Giada's vitals. After another half hour we were led to the room. There was a play room there and we went to look at the aquarium. One of the Child Life staff mentioned that they had some props that could help get Giada accustomed to the gown-of-shame and the anesthesia mask. A couple minutes after the nurse set up in our room, Giada was called to the pre-operation room. We were there for a good hour. The pre-op nurse gave Giada some Versed with Acetaminophen, which was supposed to relax her, and for a while it worked. However, at about 11:30 she remembered that she was hungry and went on a rampage, flopping around and making an appeal for sustenance. She got so ornery that I had to hold her because Sachie couldn't restrain her. Of course we were a bit irritated because if we'd known it would take so long, we could've given her apple juice (which is classified as a clear liquid, as opposed to orange juice) to get some calories and take her mind off of being hungry.
Giada went into the operating room at 12:04 and was there until about 15:26. That was a long wait! I went to the cafeteria to snag us some lunch, and after a couple hours of waiting we both kind of passed out in the waiting area. I was barely conscious when they told us at around 15:00 that surgery was over and completed successfully. Not too long after that, the specialist Dr. Kramer came out to give us a post-op debriefing. He reassured us that everything went very well, with a bit of recap what we already knew about the conditions of the re-implantation, i.e. that due to the complete renal duplication on the right side there were two ureters, so he had to re-implant three instead of two.
Afterward as we were getting something to drink they sent someone to get us: Giada was awake in the recovery room and apparently wanted "mama". She looked fragile in the hospital gown with three tubes (IV, catheter, and epidural) and 3-4 wires (for vital signs) protruding from her. Sachie held her while we got the anesthesiologist's sign off (she vaguely reminded me of Sarah Jessica Parker). Thereafter, they put Sachie in a wheelchair and took us back to the room. There we've been for two days, as I write this.
We did a lot of sleeping, which was nice. I don't get enough sleep, unless forced to take down time either by illness or other event. Friday morning and afternoon were stressful, but the rest of the weekend has been pretty relaxing. Giada's recovering well, it seems, so potentially we'll be able to go home this evening. Sachie and I have mixed feelings on that: since they just took out the epidural this morning and will be taking out the catheter this afternoon, it seems like it'd be worthwhile to monitor Giada a bit before discharging her. We'll be paying our deductible anyway, so another day in here is no skin off our noses. (That clearly demonstrates how our current health care system is not free-market, and why socialized medicine will cause medical costs, which would have to be paid out of our taxes, to further balloon.) On the other hand, I'm sure that Giada would like to get home as soon as possible, so if they tell us we can go, we will.
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