Today was the small procedure day. Get the “port” installed and have the lumbar puncture. Easy peezy. Right?
This morning started off with an 8 AM appointment for a health check with our normal nurses in E Clinic. They all agreed it was probably overkill since they had just seen Summer. But it’s all procedure. Nothing has changed so she was cleared for surgery.
We had over an hour to kill till the surgical appointment, but Summer was not allowed to eat. That meant having a snack at the St Jude Starbucks was out. We grabbed a bottle of water from the cafeteria and sat outside. 95 in the shade feels like cool weather in Memphis! I made a few phone calls and I am pretty sure my daughter watched TikToks. Am I wrong Summer?
About 10:15 the surgical group called and said they would take Summer early for surgery if we were ready. Awesome. We headed that way.
We met with our surgical nurse and doctor. They were all pleasant and said the 4 hours of time in the time blocks set aside were excessive. These two small procedures should go quickly. Awesome! Maybe we could do lunch afterward?
Surgery was scheduled for 10:30. I think by the time we got done with our chit chats and reviews of the procedure that it was 10:45.
I got a phone call from the team saying that surgery was beginning… At 11:45! Wait a sec… This was taking longer than I thought. I was called and visited by nurses all along the way to tell me how things were going. Everything was fine, but by the time they told me her surgery was over it was 1:30. I was brought into recovery to sit with Summer until she was ready to get up and go. That was about 2:30.
LOL… No time saved after all.
Earlier in the day when we pulled up, I used the valet service. I did this, knowing that Summer after anesthesia is not what I want to be lugging around the parking lot. Even with a little expedited time in parking and a drive straight home (avoiding bumps because she said she could feel everyone!)… By the time I helped my zombie-fied kid to her bed in Target House, it was nearly 4 o’clock. She was bushed (A word I had to define for her today when I asked if she was “bushed”) and slept for 90 minutes or so when we got home.
Tonight was Domino’s Pizza night at Target House. I thought I was getting some kind of chicken pizza from the picture, but I ended up getting a whole veggie pizza. That was not welcomed by my daughter, but she suffered through a few slices. They also included some snacks and drinks so she was a little happier when it was all said and done. We did not have to leave at all tonight. Which was great. Stranger Things Season 4 completed! They could have shaved off 30 minutes in hugs, but we had nothing better to do!
After sitting for a few hours on the couch… The soreness of her chest was taking a toll. Even with pain meds I imagine she will be very stiff tomorrow. Wish us luck with the next few days. They are full of appointments.
Tomorrow we have a bunch of appointments… 90 minutes with optics is first. I am interested to see what that is all about. At the end of the day, we meet with fertility and I am going to guess they tell us what to do on Thursday when we have an out-of-hospital visit at their clinic. Thursday is filled till late in the day… but Friday appears to be open?!?!? Still holding our breath. We should know a lot more tomorrow about what the weekend plans will be.
Glad they did the port; how was the spinal tap (LP)?