Surgery Notes

How cool is this...they have wireless internet available in the hospital rooms!

Dad did really well with his surgery. He had to register at 6am and the surgery was to start at 7:30 but they had trouble starting an arterial line so his case actually didn't get underway until 9:15. They had said to expect about 4 hours of surgery and at least 2 hours of recovery so I settled into the surgery waiting room. I finished my book by 11 and read all the inserts from last Thursday's paper (desperate). At 1:15 I asked the desk if they could get us a report because it had been 4 hours.....they said "didn't anyone come and talk to you yet?!" He had been in recovery since 12! So they paged the Dr, who had gone from Dad's surgery to an emergency, and he said the tumor was just around the kidney, they took it and the kidney out without any complications. He did great and was a great patient! Good News! Now I am just in his room with him, periodically swabbing his mouth with ice water. He is in control of his morphine pump so all is well on his end. Hopefully he won't get as loaded as Mom did during her knee replacement....now there is a story for another day for sure. I am already grounded anyway for the near drowning confessions and the retirement picture so I have nothing to lose!

I will back up a little to yesterday.
We went to a bunch of appointments and he had a bone scan done that we don't know the results of. He was pretty busy all day long but was able to rest in between appointments pretty well.

On one of our many elevator rides a woman was in with him in a wheelchair and she was obviously in pain. In a place like this, you don't have to look far to find someone in a worse situation than you are. Anyway she was moaning but when Dad would look at her she would just smiled this pathetic little smile. Her escort said to Dad, "Aren't you glad you aren't in labor?" Dad got a real panicked looked his face and our elevator stop happened to be right then so as we were getting off he said "Now just hold off until I get off of here!" I don't know if he was afraid he would have to deliver a baby or not. :)

Dad's attitude has been really good about the whole thing although he is obviously not having the time of his life. This morning in pre-op....it was really busy with surgeons visiting, nurses, students, anesthesiology etc. At one point he said "I feel like I am in an episode of M*A*S*H and I keep wondering when Klinger is going to come in." I didn't ask him why he would look for the cross-dresser instead of Hot-Lips Hoolihan.....but I will admit to being a little concerned about that!

Anyway...so far so good. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. I am planning to stay a couple of days. Sounds like he will be here for 4 or 5 days depending on how things go.