5:30am is really stinking early to us. 5:30am is especially stinking early to us when we are reporting for surgery at a hospital that’s 30 minutes away. 5:30am is really, really, ridiculously stinking early when they make you wait for 5 hours before starting said surgery!
Last week Nick waited 2.5 hours in the waiting room for a pre-op appointment, and today he waited 5 hours for the same doc. Something is very wrong with this picture. We didn’t feel like patients or customers, we felt like puppets. Waking at 3:45am only to sit around on hard chairs under bright fluorescent lighting, suffering audible assault by incessant beeping in a cold and sterile room completely sucked the life out of us on a day that we needed every speck of strength and optimism.
Honestly, I have no idea how the surgery went because I still haven’t talked to the doctor. In his groggy, post-op sedation, Nick briefly spoke with him. The two rods and twelve screws are out, along with other miscellaneous parts, but apparently they had to put some hardware back in. We knew this was a possibility, I just want to know the extent of it all.
I met up with Nick at 3:30 this afternoon as he was being transported from Recovery up to his room. All afternoon and evening he’s been quiet and still, wearing a perma-grimmace. He shifted position twice tonight with the help of two nurses and myself. These minor adjustments shot his pain levels through the roof. And don’t even think about bumping the bed!
I brought his pain medicine with me, knowing that it would take forever for them to get his shit straight. I was right, and so grateful he took some. It was nearly 5 hours before he got oxycodone from the nurse, and still his pain is out of control.
There is a hemo-vac draining fluid and blood from his back, which leads me to believe he might not be going home tomorrow as we’ve been anticipating. I hope not, but I am mentally preparing for it. I know Nick’s going to be pissed if he has to stay another night though.
So ready for this to be over.
Nick Fener 