Thursday Thoughts ~ 8/17/23

I’m gonna try not to think about me right now. When you can’t un-hear the announcement “all available help to room 3” from your seat in the waiting room of the Methodist Ambulatory Surgical Center, you make stuff up. It’s over and Lulu wasn’t even the patient in room 3, thank goodness. But someone else’s loved one was & that is sad.

I observed a lot yesterday & listened more closely with heightened attention. I didn’t think about what I’d write in the story I knew I had to tell. Now as I sit here the day after, I think to myself maybe I don’t have to tell it.

Except for WP, I’ve been on a anti-share campaign. Here I can write my genuine thoughts for my own reason and people are kind. FB & Instagram are full of irl people who are silent. I care way too deeply about responses. My feelings are hurt on the regular. Almost always because I make stuff up. But wait! Didn’t I say this is not about me.

Few things to remember… people with the wristbands were patients. People with PHI approved smiley face stickers were loved ones who could get health info on the patient. That’s a story of its own with feuding divorced parents whose daughter had her tonsils removed. And of course the parents had their parents there. Grandma loudly states “my son gets to hear too about his own child, MY granddaughter”. The poor kid was scared as it was without the 3 on 3 contest with her as the basketball.

On that note, despite what we were told, you could bring more than one person. I found it comforting when one patient had her boyfriend, her aunties, her grandmother, and her sister with her. She had no mama but her mama’s sisters and grandma stood up. I know this because they cried wishing her mama could be there. Only sister was PHI approved & went back while the remaining women formed a wall of unity. Maybe that was the rule, only one person in the back but anyone who wanted to wait could tag along.

There was 3 back rooms plus several operating rooms like the infamous room 3. # 1 is pre-op prep, #2 is recovery nurse only, #3 is next phase recovery/discharge. I got into #1 (after prep but still waiting) and #3 as Lulu’s PHI person.

Landing the plane. Cheers to a successful surgery. Doc has every confidence the pathology will be good.

Lulu did fantastic. She’s a brave little soldier. Refused anti anxiety meds. Said she wasn’t scared. Almost refused Tylenol saying the pain was manageable. Feels like a good workout with too many crunches she said. This from the girl who like her mama has rarely done a crunch. How would we know?!?? 😂

Until next time. Be well.

As always more to come.