Day at the hospital

I spent a lot of time at the hospital today, with two friends having surgery within an hour of each other. After I got one friend delivered to the out patient registration area and then into the pre-op area where I watched her get stuck and jabbed and wired and, finally wheeled off, I ran over to the other side of the hospital to find out about J. Her E was sitting there trying to read a book while waiting to hear something and he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. He’s a pretty laid-back fellow most of the time, but he was a wreck today. That didn’t help my nerves any, I’ll tell you what. He told me that she wasn’t in surgery yet and we should be able to go in and see her before they wheeled her up. And indeed, we were able to go see her before surgery. She also had wires and tubes sticking out all over the place. Hardly knew where to grab hold to hug her. It was a little scary.

After she was wheeled away, I dashed home to check the fire and grab something to eat. I went back up about an hour later and sat in the atrium reading a magazine in a rocking chair. Rather a pleasant environment in there with a bright shaft of sunlight warming me. There was a recycling water fall which was sort of soothing. I suppose that was its purpose. It’s hard to sit waiting to find out about people you love. E was shuffled off to another area for family members and said if anything happened he’d call me directly on my cell phone. It would have been easier if we could have waited together.

Finally the friend I brought to the hospital this morning was ready to go home. She was remarkably chipper considering. On our way out, J’s surgeon walked past and recognized me. She let me know that J was in recovery and had done exceedingly well in surgery. She would probably be a little out of it for the rest of today, but would ready to receive visitors tomorrow. Hooray!!! She’s okay! E called me about a half hour later to let me know that all was well. Really well. He sounded very, very relieved, a little wilted, and, well, happy.

And I am, too. And tired. And thankful for good and caring doctors.

I spent the better part of the afternoon with my other friend, making sure she had everything she needed and watching to make sure that she really was okay. The drugs they use have a strange effect on people. I promise that I will never remind her of the rather odd conversations she had with herself today. ;) I got her tucked in and I’ll check on her in the morning and throughout the day. And then I’ll run up to see J. I will be so glad when she is out of there and home. I’ll be glad when both of them are back to normal. I don’t like seeing my friends like this. But I don’t think they like it either. I’m just glad they are both okay.