have you ever sat with your arm in the air???
Continued from yesterday, where I growled at hospital personnel...
High on morphine and I took home a nice souvenir on my left arm – a fiberglass splint from wrist to armpit. It’s so cool these days – they have dehydrated fiberglass… well it’s a little more chemical than that, but seriously, “just add water” , fashion and mold to your liking, and *presto* you have your very own cast. Somewhere in there, Anthony ran to concessions and got us something to eat – it was like 2pm and we had breakfast so long ago! After the morphine, x-ray, cast ordeal, I was ready to go. I left with a piece of paper that said “thanks for visiting the ER today (or not), your next appointment is on Tuesday at 9am with Dr. Lau”… okay well it didn’t say the first part, but it did say that my appointment was on Tuesday at 9am. Well enough, I guess I can do this cast thing for 3 days.
Cast on, I shuffled to the door, and waited while Anthony retrieved the golden chariot and picked me up. I would’ve walked to get the car, but the Kaiser Hospital is on a steep hill and I was still chock full of morphine.
Once home, we cleaned up and kept our plans of attending Renee and Tif’s wedding. Unfortunately we didn’t make the ceremony, but we did make the reception. It was gorgeous, and all my teammates were there, and very nice to me and gracious and surprised that Anthony and I made it. Tif was gorgeous beyond words and Renee was dapper in her tux. I was greeted with many a hug and question upon question. We stayed through dinner and the speeches, and made our way home shortly after that, my hand throbbing with pressure.
Anthony and I amended our fun camping plans to stay low key and in the area, I was less and less mobile as the hours lapsed, and by Monday, (my actual birthday) I was reduced to sitting on the couch with my arm above my shoulder to ease and control the swelling. I was in fear of my hand popping off. Quite literally it would turn purple and throbbing cold as soon as I brought it below my heart.
When the phone rang on Monday afternoon, I half expected it was a nurse reminding me of my appointment for Tuesday at 9am. I was expecting to meet with Dr. Lau for pre-op surgery, talk about what was going to happen, and when. Upon answering the phone, the nurse on the other end was ‘reminding’ me of my surgery at 11am the next day. Wait a minute, I haven’t had my pre-op appointment I said, I cant go into surgery yet, I’m supposed to meet the doctor at 9 am tomorrow. The nurse on the other end said “I have a note here that you’re to go into surgery at 11am tomorrow, and nothing about another meeting at 9am.” I asked where I should go, and she replied with directions and said I’d meet the doctor there.
I was dropped off by my roommate at the hospital at 9am the next day, to check in and all that. It wasn’t long before I had a missed call from my doctor, and listening to the message, he said he was waiting for me at the original appointment (its in another building) and why wasn’t I there? *temper rising* I’m not there because the lady on the phone told me not to meet with you! *sigh* this is a heavy foreshadowing moment as well.
I’ll leave you here and pick it up with my attempt at registering myself for surgery on the morning of September 23rd.
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