Many Emotions

What a day! Dad was scheduled for surgery and we were on deck to be his support team.  Ron drove and dropped the three of us off at the door of the Belleville Hospital.  

We made our way down to Day Surgery.  They took dad in pretty quickly.  It was before 11:00.  They told us that the surgery was scheduled for 1:00 pm and that he should be ready to go home by 3:00.  We went to Zwicks Park and went for a walk along the water.  

We decided to grab some lunch before heading back to the hospital.  We went back and waited.  3:00 came and went.  After some anxious waiting, I called into the day surgery area.  They said that some people take longer in recovery due to the anaesthetic.  We waited.  Two other people were waiting for their family member.  We thought the niece could have been in the world’s Guinness book of world records for talking without taking a breath.  We, on the other hand, were kind of quite worrying why it was taking so long.  Finally, a nurse came out to talk to us.  Dad’s blood pressure was 200.  They were trying to manage that.  It was pretty scary and we were very worried about the consequences of such a high number.  We waited and waited.  I called into the area again for an update and they said that they would be transporting him over to the step down recovery area soon.  Around 5:00, they finally came out to talk to us.  His blood pressure had actually gone up to 220 but it was now better.  We got to go in and see him.  He looked good.

The next concern was that he didn’t have feeling in his legs and feet enough to stand.  They weren’t going to let him go home until he could stand a little more steady.  They set a time for 20 minutes to try again.  We went to Tim’s in the hospital to grab a snack while dad was wrapped with a heated blanket.  We came back and waited.  At 7:30, after a few more tries of steadiness, he was wheeled out to the car and managed to get into the front seat.  

Thirty minutes later he made his way into the condo to his chair.  After a bagel and a drink, he was ready for bed. 

I took a sigh of relieve and then I got a text from Stephen.  Kylie’s dad was in the hospital, not doing well.  Kylie will be staying longer with her parents.  He also said that Lily, their beautiful cat passed away yesterday.

 My heart is heavy.