Second Surgery Eve
September 21, 2009
It’s the day before surgery and what am I doing? I’m baking cookies for the nurses station and for the operating room staff at the surgery center while I’ll be nipped and tucked, folded, bent and spindled. I always say, if a few cookies will get you an extra injection of pain medication then it’s worth a few hours in the kitchen!
Okay, I’m not doing it for more drugs, at least that’s not my primary motive. As feeble as it sounds cookies are my way, beyond slapping a sizable check in their direction for services rendered to say “thank you.” These folks were so attentive and kind to me when I was there less than seven weeks ago and I never had a chance to thank them at the time because I spent most of my stay there drifting in the land of narcotics and when I was awake and heading out the door the only thing I could think of was “Ouch! Ouch! Mommymommymommy!” So I’m taking them cookies to say thanks for last time and along with that I’m using much of the baking time, except now because I’m here with you if you hadn’t noticed, praying for the surgeon, his assistant, the anesthesiologist, and the two assisting nurses, all of whom will be in the OR with me throughout tomorrow. I’m praying for the nurses who will be with me through the night. Sure. I’m praying they’ll do some of the best work of their lives but mostly I’m praying that they would be blessed in their own lives; that they would know joy, that their families would be safe, that whatever their faith might be, they would always know the God of love loves them. Tomorrow they’ll be spending nearly nine hours caring for me and so it seems the least I can do is spend a couple hours today baking and praying and thinking of them. You do what you can.
AND I’m here at home this morning waiting for a special delivery; the rental hospital bed that will be adorning our living room. I hear it’s the latest in home decor and so I couldn’t help but follow the trend. Actually, several friends and my wife had suggested I consider getting one but I resisted because….well…..good grief. A hospital bed? It wasn’t until after the occupational therapist was here showing me how to maneuver myself in and out of the couch and the bed that I thought maybe these people knew what they were saying and so I called this week and ordered one. The company woman on the phone said, “Unfortunately we don’t have any partial electric beds available at the moment. The only ones we have in stock are fully electric, ” to which I answered, “That sounds good to me since I want one with the capability to flip me over. The less I have to do the better I like it.” I think she got my humor…but I’m not so sure. Anyway, now all I need is a buzzer to ring every time I want a new straw for my water glass and I’m set. On second thought, I don’t think I better push it with my home nurse, a.k.a. my wife.(By the way, the bed pictured is the actual one that will be delivered any minute. I’m sure hoping a mattress is included otherwise I don’t see how this is going to be more comfortable than the couch!)
So once the bed has arrived and the cookies and praying are done, I’m going to take a break and watch the season’s opening episode of “Fringe.” I was going to save it for when I got home from surgery but that show requires all my synapses to be firing to understand. With medication I wouldn’t stand a chance.
Posted in Reconstructive Surgery
