The last half of October was full of ups, downs, tears, and cheers. We had been happily anticipating this part of the year for quite some time--Forest's mother was scheduled to visit us for a week, we had tickets to a Pearl Jam concert in Denver, I had my own orchestra concert, and of course there are always Halloween festivities. What we were not expecting was Forest's appendectomy thrown into this whole mix of events. Although the procedure went just about as smoothly as unplanned surgeries can go, this single occurrence was enough to send my mind spinning on the edge of sanity for the remainder of the month. At least you can only get appendicitis once.
Here is Forest two days before the surgery, out on a walk in the neighborhood with his mom and his girls. He has no idea what is coming! (neither did we)
Yes. The next morning he came home from work at about 9:30, cringing from severe abdominal pain. By 3pm he was heading into surgery. I am pretty sure this day would have been a lot more disastrous without my mother-in-law there helping. Also, I am pretty sure Forest would not have been smiling in this picture without some very strong pain medication and the doctor's reassurance that he should be recovered in time for the Pearl Jam concert. Apparently the surgeon's wife was a big PJ fan, native of Seattle, and they had tickets to the concert, too.
After some speedy slicing (with Pearl Jam playing in the background), Forest was soon down one organ but still smiling for the camera.
And he was cleared to go home not long after. Easy, huh? Except we almost didn't get any pain meds for our patient because the doctor made a mistake when scribbling down the prescription. And that mishap, piled on top of all the other stressors that day, was enough to wipe away my smiles for the rest of the evening, and may have triggered a few teardrops into my pillow that night, too. Thankfully, that whole day is history, and no one really needs an appendix, anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment