MONDAY MONDAY

The Warden goes under the knife this afternoon at around 1:00pm for a little plumbing work. She’ll spend two or three days recovering in the hospital, and is on paid convalescence leave until the 14th of December.

I’ll be dropping her at the hospital at around 10:00am, after which I’ll go pick up her mom and take her back to the hospital where we’ll both spend the day. I’ll take the kids by later in the afternoon/evening.

I’m off all week to tend to my bride’s needs. She doesn’t think she’ll need it, but I took the week anyway.

Will update tonight or tomorrow morning.
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6:34pm

Everything went well The Warden’s surgery. I was with her during pre-op. The first nurse tried and failed at starting an IV. The 2nd nurse, much more experienced, set the second one with no problems. They gave her a shot of lidocaine before inserting the IV needles, which was a nice touch. I hated seeing my lovely wince in pain with the needles. She’s a tough chick, but has a low threshold for pain, especially needles. The look in her eyes positively broke my heart and I wished I could take every bit of pain she was feeling, and would feel afterward.

We sat and talked for about 15 minutes before the OR nurse came to dope her up with a sedative. She added the stuff to the IV drip and said it’d be about 2 or 3 minutes before she felt it. About 2 minutes after the nurse added it, she started to feel woozy. I kissed her on her forehead and told her I loved her before she zoned out completely. I also told her to make sure she had good dreams about me. The nurse wheeled her off shortly thereafter.

The doctors came into the waiting room and said everything went without a hitch, and much quicker than expected (about 35 minutes instead of an hour).

After that, I left to pick up the kids from school. We were back at the hospital at about 5:00pm, only a few minutes after she’d been wheeled into her room from recovery. She was completely out, and only stirred briefly when we told her we were there and that we loved her. We left at 5:30pm to take my mother/father-in-law home.

So now I’m here at home on a quick dinner and homework break with the kids. We’ll be headed back to the hospital in about a half an hour or so for another visit. Hopefully she’ll be more coherent, the poor little thing. I just hate the thought of her waking up with no one she knows there.

Thanks for the kind words!

Cj
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9:05pm
Just got back from visiting The Warden. She was still out of it. Between the anesthesia and the “happy button” she’s been mashing (as they say in Alabama) to ease her pain, she’s only in and out of consciousness. I talked to her pretty much continuously the whole time the kids and I were there. She was responsive, but went right back into her drug-induced haze within seconds after responding. She did laugh weakly a couple of times (mostly when I asked her to tell me about her dreams of me!). That was encouraging.

The nurse came in to take vitals and to change her IV solution. The Warden had a slight temperature of 100.1, down from 100.6 an hour or so before. The nurse encouraged her to do her deep breathing exercises, as I did a few times during our visit. We got a few good, deep breaths out of her, and a couple of weak coughs. The nurse said the temperature could indicate she’s developing bacterial pneumonia. The nurse explained how that happens after surgery, but I’ll spare you. The nurse reassured me that it was looking good because her temperature was going down, but I can’t help but worry.

I miss that woman already, and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a bitch seeing her in that state. It’s strange being in the house without my lovely bride here.

I’ll be back to see her at 9:00am tomorrow.

Cj