Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Linda had to drive over to Stanford today for a COVID test (required 48 hours before surgery). At least she didn’t have to get out of the car and go in anywhere. She got the results on Thursday (negative, of course). Also on Thursday, she was notified that the time of her surgery on Friday would be 7 a.m. and she would need to check in at 5:15 a.m.
Friday, January 28, 2022
Linda and I set our cell phone alarms for 3 a.m. Linda’s sound was a crowing rooster! Miraculously, Linda got out of bed and took a shower while I heated my coffee (Linda couldn’t have anything to eat or drink—even water—after midnight.) She packed a black tote bag with the things she wanted to take, while I put Emily in her black soft-sided carrier. Aaron rang our front doorbell at 4 a.m. exactly. I gave him Linda’s bag and he helped her down the front porch steps and into his car. I locked the front screen door from the inside and went out the back door and locked it from the outside—then carried Emily, my backpack, and my coffee—and went around the front to Aaron’s car.
Aaron put the Stanford Hospital address in his phone while Emily and I got settled in the back seat. It was a really easy drive over with almost no traffic! Linda and Aaron talked but I couldn’t hear much of it. We actually got to Stanford Hospital at 4:45. Aaron got out to ask for a wheelchair and they gave him a transport chair. When we got back to the entrance, they told us that only one of us could go inside with Linda. So Aaron said he would go park the car and then come back.
Of course, they gave Linda and me masks, and I put the surgical mask over my cloth Kinship mask. We went up to the second floor for inpatient registration. It was 5:18 a.m. by that time, so we were right on time! Then we were directed to a waiting room where we were told to wait until called.
I had Emily’s carrier on my arm (as my “bag”) but I failed to take my backpack which had my phone so I couldn’t take pictures or call/text Aaron, and Linda didn’t have his phone number in her phone. But she took (at my request) this picture of the waiting area where we sat for an hour and a half. Linda was very uncomfortable in the transport chair, and Emily was restless because she was thirsty. Although I had a travel water bowl in one pocket of her carrier, my water bottle was in my backpack. So I took my “bag” and went to a restroom where I got water for Emily to drink.
It was after 6:30 when they came to call Linda to go to the O.R. I had to hug her at the door, then Emily and I went back downstairs. Poor Aaron had been standing outside in the dark and cold all that time! I tried to apologize profusely as I followed him to his car in the parking garage.
We drove around looking for a place to get something to eat. We found a Starbucks but it wasn’t a drive-through, so we masked up and went in, me with my backpack and Emily in her carrier. I ordered egg bites (so I could share some of the bacon pieces with Emily) and Aaron got a breakfast sandwich. We stayed inside to eat.
After that, we drove around the area. Stanford sent me text updates periodically until the last one at 7:57 a.m. that said “The patient’s procedure has begun.” She had a “PreOp” completed at 7:07 a.m., was taken into the O.R. at 7:30 a.m.
Since we were told that the surgery would take 2 hours, we went back to the Stanford Hospital parking garage at 9:30 and I went up to the entrance. I was told I would have to ask at the patient services desk (just inside the front door) and I had to go through the whole procedure (they asked all the questions about COVID symptoms, then I had to show my driver’s license and vaccination card).
Patient services called Surgery and found out that Linda was in Recovery and could have been taken to her patient room except that it was still occupied by another patient who had not yet been discharged. And of course the room would have to be cleaned and sanitized. He gave me a slip of paper with a number to call but said to wait at least 30 minutes. So Aaron and I walked around the campus, not getting too far away from the hospital. We figured out where the public “restrooms” (actually, solar-powered port-a-potties) were, and that Emily could walk in the mulch with grasses nearby.
We saw a sign advertising “The Zoom Café” which turned out to be a food truck (apparently on contract with Stanford) that sold mostly hot coffee drinks and a few food items. Aaron thought a hot chocolate sounded good and I asked for a plain brewed coffee with cream. It was daytime now and sunny and warmer, so we sat down in soft chairs by one of the fountains and just talked while leisurely sipping our drinks. I put Emily’s bag down on a table between our two chairs, facing Aaron, and she was so happy she drifted off to sleep.
I kept calling the Surgery number and got the same answer: the patient in Linda’s assigned room was not yet discharged. Finally, I suggested we try to find an In-and-Out Burger, which Aaron found on his phone. It was only a few miles away but took over 30 minutes to drive there because of going through neighborhoods. At least it was upscale neighborhoods: the kind of houses with concrete walls and/or double wrought-iron gates and circular driveways. Aaron and I got our usual menu items and Emily got a Pup Patty. We pulled into a parking space and ate in the car.
Again, we went back to the Stanford Hospital parking garage. I left Emily with Aaron and I was (finally!) allowed to go to the patient room floor where Linda’s assigned room was empty. Linda was not yet there so I waited and used the bathroom there while I was waiting.
A floor nurse and nurse’s assistant came in when they brought Linda’s bed in. They were young (20- or 30-something), very sweet girls. They introduced themselves and got busy with setting up all the equipment and everything, with a constant narrative telling Linda everything they were doing and why.
At one point, they had her turn over on her left side, which they did easily because there were two of them. Linda has an actual phone (local 650 number) attached to the bed, and a remote which controls the TV, the call button for a nurse, and the blinds on the windows. She was asking about an electrical outlet to plug in her phone charging cable, and they showed her a USB port on one side of the bed (no electrical outlet needed).
They gave her a menu for meals, but all she wanted then was water and coffee. For meals, patients can order anything they want from the menu and at any time they want, whether one meal a day or six meals! After the nurses had finished and left the room, I went over to Linda’s bed so I could hug her and we kissed with our masks on.
Aaron was so ready to go home! By the time we got back to San Leandro, he had already sacrificed 13 hours of his day off. He told me he took a day of family medical leave so it wouldn’t count against his vacation.
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Emily and I slept until 11, then I got up and fixed our breakfast. After we ate, I decided we should go for a short walk. However, Linda had texted me and told me they were discharging her today at 3 p.m. and bringing her home in a transport van on a gurney. While Emily and I sat inside the clubhouse, I phoned Linda to get details about her arrival at home. Then I went back home to wait.
At 4 p.m. exactly, the medical transport van pulled up in front of the house. There were two men, and Linda was on a gurney in the back of the van. They got her out but, after looking at the front porch, they decided they would not be able to take the gurney up the steep steps. So, between the two of them, they managed to “carry” her up the steps. Linda asked me to bring her rolling stool from the kitchen so she could sit on it and I could roll her to the bedroom door. (It wasn’t easy but we finally did it.) From there, she could use her crutches to get to the bed.
Emily was so excited to see “Mom” inside the house! She followed us very closely, so I had to be careful to not roll Linda’s chair over her little doggie feet. It took 90 minutes for Linda to get into the bed and get as comfortable as possible, though she will not be comfortable sleeping on her back.
They gave her a new hospital bedpan and the foam wedge to put between her legs to keep her knees straight. She said they are supposed to deliver a bedside commode on Monday. On Tuesday, a home health care agency is supposed to send a nurse to change her wound bandage every other day. She also was given a spirometer to breathe into to help prevent pneumonia. And she is supposed to exercise bending her leg at the knee three times a day (I have to help her with that until her leg gets stronger).
I will keep feeding Emily in the living room, beside my desk where she sleeps, so she won’t bother Linda. The only times I can put her in the bed is when I’m there with her (like all night).
