The Day Of Surgery

I feel as if the theme for the hospital is "hurry up and wait". I was called to one area to prepare for surgery, by getting changed into a hospital gown. The nurse came and inserted the IV feed. She then said she would come back one hour before surgery to give me some pills. The original time for surgery was 10:00 am, but I wasn't taken until closer to 11:00 am. I then had to wait about 15 minutes in another area. I met one of the nurses who would be in the operating room. Apparently the consent form had expired and I needed to sign a new one. I was wheeled to just outside the operating room and I met the anethesist, who asked me some questions. I then resigned the same consent form with that day's date. The surgeon asked about an abdominal port for chemo and I said that Southlake didn't have the means to administer chemo that way so they crossed it off the form. I then was wheeled in to the operating room and within a few minutes I was asleep.

When I was taken to the operating room my husband went to wait in the designated waiting room. There was a screen that displayed the patients' names, operating room numbers, starting time of surgery and when surgery finished. After an hour and a quarter my operation stated "closed", which meant that the operation was over. My husband asked the volunteer about that and she said it must be a mistake, but fifteen minutes later the surgeon appeared and called Dan's name. He met with the surgeon in a small room. The surgeon said "This was quite astounding, we were not able to find any cancer." My husband replied that there have been "hundreds of people praying" for me; to which the surgeon said "I think it was the chemo".

When I came to in my hospital room I had a tube in my nostrils pumping oxygen; I was hooked up to IV; and I had a catheter. I was not allowed to drink water after my surgery. I was thirsty, but my husband was only able to wet my lips with a sponge-tipped wand that was dipped in water. I drifted in and out of consciousness and I could barely keep my eyes open. Dan shared the news about my surgery with me, but I didn't remember it. One of the doctors that was present during surgery visited me and Dan asked her more details. She said that they didn't see any tumour on the ovary.