Day of Surgery
Mom, Dad and I got to the hospital around 8:45am. We should have been there earlier except for major traffic we hit on the expressway and the fact that I overslept! They were coming at 7:15 and I woke up at 7:20 to realize I wasn’t yet awake and they’d be on their way. It didn’t help that my phone was on vibrate in my purse. Oops. I got ready in about 10 minutes and we flew out of the house.
Jeff was awake and had done numerous tests before we arrived, but was all ready for surgery. We spent the morning waiting and just talking about other things to pass the time. Mom’s boss, Lisa, came by for awhile and we all talked with her. Jeff joked about playing golf with her since no one else wants to and he can never get my dad to go with him.
Around 11:15 or so they came to take him to surgery. We weren’t quite ready since we were expecting him to leave around noon. We each said good bye and good luck separately. I went first and started crying the second I gave him a kiss and a hug- and his tears were flowing right after mine! I told him I loved him and that I knew he was going to be fine… and that I wasn’t crying because I was scared about the surgery but just that I hated that he had to do it at all… I knew he’d be fine- and to just keep remembering that. We both cried a little more. I said I love you one more time- and then let someone else go next.
They let us ride down in the elevator with him to the 3rd floor (Susan had also come to see him at that point so she was with us in the elevator). We got out and said goodbye again, and then they let Mom go in with him while he was just in prep, putting in lines and the catheter etc. I’m sure he was grateful to have that because that was what he was afraid of- being in the OR before he went under anesthesia.
We came back to the Gray Family Waiting Room where Mom met us shortly after. Terri came in to help us wait things out- crossword puzzles, magazines and candy in hand. Tina also came down for a bit, and then we decided to go get some lunch and kill some time. We went to the Hill and got burgers and sandwiches and showed Terri the slideshow of Jeff’s haircutting party.
Terri had to head out before we finished- and when the 4 of us were done, we went to Melissa’s to hang out and play with Buffy. Figured she’d be lonely since Melissa and Jeff were out of the house all day.
Then we came back to the Gray Family Waiting Room to continue the waiting process. Maureen and Marie were here waiting for us then. We chatted with them, then Melissa and I started working on a crossword puzzle together. Dan came shortly after and we enlisted him to help with the crossword puzzle we couldn’t quite finish. Then since he was ranking on us, we decided that we’d have a challenge- Melissa and I would do one crossword puzzle and he’d do two of them. He beat us! Neither of us finished completely but he did more than we did! Sad, but we had fun doing it!
After 7:15, Dan was getting really hungry and decided to go down to the caf for a slice of pizza. As soon as he got to the door, Curry walked through it (though he didn’t know, never having seen him before).
Dr. Curry brought us into the consultation room and told us that from what he could tell, he thought they got it all. Everything went really well and Jeff was awake and talking, and did well with his neurological functioning tests even right after surgery. They would do an MRI that night to confirm that everything was gone.
We were sooo relieved. We all got on the phone calling everyone with the good news! We still had to wait for at least 1 more of hour of him in recovery before we could go see him back on Blake 12. We went upstairs around 9:00, but they didn’t have him back in bed and settled until after 9:30 and then we could only go in 2 at a time.
Mom and Dad went in first and immediately when they came out, Melissa and I went in. He looked so great it was hard to believe. We all expected all sorts of crazy bandages on his head and that he’d be swollen with all sorts of scars and wound dressings. He had the drain in the front that was covered with about 1 ½ square inches of gauze. Above each ear he was a little swollen, which we later learned was because of the imaging technology that they put on his head to capture the shape and activity of his brain. Otherwise, he was lying down with his head back on the pillow, very similarly to when he went in. He was talking to us, still a little groggy and obviously tired. But sooo much better than we ever imagined. Even still had a little humor left in him. We said we’d let him get back to resting like the nurses wanted and he was quick to say “Adios!”
Most of the rest of the night we didn’t go back in too much. Patrick came and so did Susan. Susan brought dinner from Artu in the North End- all different kinds of pasta, which tasted so good since we were so hungry and finally relieved enough to eat.
Mom and Dad both stayed the night on Wednesday, to take turns being in the room with Jeff so that when he woke up, he’d have a familiar face and someone to get him ice or whatever he needed. I drove the van home around 11:30 to get a good night’s sleep and hopefully stay the next night to relieve Mom and Dad. I called Laura and we chatted all the way home. It was nice to talk with someone outside of the hospital for awhile and I knew she’d be up studying J But by the time I got home I was definitely beat. I was getting settled, unpacking stuff from my purse, while we were wrapping up our conversation and all of a sudden I got panicked. I couldn’t find my cell phone and I was all upset that I left it at the hospital, and I told my parents to call if they needed anything… then I realized “I’m still ON the phone!” Definitely time for bed! Laura was laughing her ass off!
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