Pre-Op all the way to Post-Op

They woke us at 6:30 am……

You going to surgery? Huh…..Well……you tell me.

Can you still have babies?

What?

We need to do a pregnancy test on her!

This guy reminded me of a modern day pirate complete with thin dyed black mustache. Dark glasses, scrubs covering his Raider Nation tattoo. Tracy asked if the doctor would see us before the surgery. Yeah….who’s your doctor?

Dr Lindval.

Oh….yeah he’s real good. He will come and see you,...yeah.

He leads us over to the new section of the Hospital. The trauma center here at CRMC is a brand new $280 million building with state of the art operating facilities and trauma ER. Very nice. We move over from the old building into a walkway that connects the two buildings and the change is obvious. We move through automatic doors past signs that read; Authorized Personnel Only, Hospital Staff Only beyond this point and in to the Pre-Operation Room.

The Pirate shows me where the waiting room is. I get into the Pre-Op and he motions, come on back here. I am going to hide you back here. If they kick you out you can go to the Pre-Op Conference Room. Tracy was glad that I was there. I could tell she was nervous. She was not saying much and would just grab my hand, and give a gentile squeeze.

Pre-Op reminds me of an auto shop garage with stalls along each wall where the broken, battered, and sick come in and the human mechanics grab tools from the tool boxes of medical supplies. Patients’ come in are checked out, pasted with electrodes, and educated before going in. They are asked the same questions they have been asked a gazillion times before.

“Are you allergic to any medications?”

“When was the last time you ate?”

"What side are you hurt"

"Bike wreak huh"

The anesthesiologist came in. Young guy, probably younger than me.

Did you have a big breakfast? Funny guy, asking trick questions.

Dr Lindval comes in…….what a striking figure. 6’ 4” handsome, super fit guy with a shaved head. Very calm, reassuring manner.

Do you have any other questions? Should take a couple of hours, and I will come and find you when we are through.

They gave me the boot…..sent to the surgery waiting room. Grabbed some coffee….super strong brew. The bitter aroma tingling the senses. Wish I had a little more sugar. The Coffee is better here than at Saint Agnes, but the food is worse. They serve Seattle’s Best, but they do not have any half and half. Un-freaking believable.

Head back to the waiting room. It is a surreal situation. I sit here typing and chatting with Tracy’s Mom and my dad. I can hear the drills in my head and envision the plates used to pull the bones back together. Sometimes I imagine how hard this situation must be for the families that are waiting for a loved one with a brain tumor or some other life threatening situation. Tracy’s situation is nothing compared to that, I have to keep telling myself that. She has been bound to the hospital bed for 8 days and sometimes I catch myself thinking she can just jump up walk around.

It has been 2 and a half hours now and still no word…….

3 hours now and still nothing……..Man how the waiting makes the mind wonder…….surf the web, talk with Dad, but eventually the silence comes and you are left with just your mind. Wondering…….thinking….the mind can do things to you. You start thinking and bad things enter in……heart starts going and you feel the blood pumping in you head. Thump, thump…….push the thoughts out……this is a complicated thing…..no need to rush…..please take you time and do the job right. I want to go get some more coffee or water or something, but I know as soon as I leave the Doc will come out and I will miss the debriefing. Can’t let that happen. Got to take a piss…….will just take a second, but can’t leave………

More waiting….wondering…..thinking……praying…….sweaty feet…..I wonder if my sandals are starting to smell. Annoying health watch TV blabbers out a constant drone of health tips, don’t smoke, Medicare health plans, and what do they cover? Blaa…Blaa….Blaa …..Urgent care……blaa….blaa….blaa…..don’t smoke….blaa….blaa….blaa….what makes a good nurse? O God please shut that thing up……

More waiting……3.5 hours now…….I think I will look at the classified pages or velonews or something.

4 hours now…..what the hell is going on in there……This was supposed to be a 2 hour deal now we are double that. This could mean they read my mind and are taking their time…..slowly making progress and making sure everything is as they would like……..precise, detailed, meticulous work that is completed perfectly.

The mind is your worst enemy in this situation……shake out the bad thoughts…….shake them out and roll with the tough times…….relax, breath, close your eyes and visualize the end of this ordeal. Visualize Tracy home with the kids sitting on her lap soaking up her love and indulging in all that she is as a mother.

Doc and his team finally come out, meet my Dad, Char les and Cindy, and of course the Nance. Everything went fine, he tells us and he walks us back to a monitor so we could see the X-Rays…..All I can say is freaking wild, amazing, unbelievable,…..long chain like plates and 4 or 5 long screws holding her together. She had a large floating triangular piece in her hip that needed to be stabilized.

They placed a plate across the top of her hip on the inside that holds the top pieces together. A plate, or more like a long strap extends down along the inside of the pelvis. This plate has several screws along its length that pull the separated halves of the hip together at the joint. It also extends left to the location where the fracture was in her pubic bone. The two halves of the pubic bone were separated and the plate stabilizes the lower portion of the pelvic ring.

It is amazing the damage that was done by that crash. 25+ mph straight to the ground slammed hard. I still remember vividly when I first got to her on the ground at Timpani. She made this funny face. I asked her if she was ok and she said….I don’t know, something feels wrong in my hip …….You could say that again.

Now she is back in her room, sleeping, breathing deep, IV drip and three bandages covering the incisions. She has a closed wound suction evacuator to keep fluid from building up in her incision sites. Pain is the word of the day and Tracy is ready and willing to take the pain medications. Morphine is the drug of choice along with Reglan (sp?) for nausea.

I can hear her deep breathing from my squeaky fold-up cot and I hope she sleeps the rest of the day. Sleep, sleep….sleep little angel and wake up ready to take recovery by the horns and wrestle it to the ground. Beating this beast that has unwantingly consumed our lives....become our hourly reality....Slowly we will take it back.