On The Mend

Just a quick update on Mary Ann (or so I thought when I started).

Late Saturday night, around 10:00 PM, we got a call from the hospital. I was in the process of writing the last post so this info did not make the cut. They said that a bed finally opened up and that they could take MA in on Sunday morning. They wanted us at the hospital for 6:00 AM. Another short night was coming again. Good thing I took some time off from work prior to chemo otherwise I’m not sure I could handle all that has been going on lately.

MA and I got up at 5:00 AM to go to the hospital. It was a very cold morning with a bitter cold wind. The car ride did not start well though as we got about 0.5 km in when MA, being nauseous already, required a bag. It was only the start of her day of nausea. Personally, given her state, I got worried she was pregnant as with each one prior, she would be nauseous before we got the + sign on the stick. (That is all we would need now to make this story even more interesting, no?)

Once at the hospital, I ran inside to get a wheelchair. MA hopped in and I pushed her inside, parked the car and we checked in. We proceeded to go upstairs to our waiting bed in anticipation of the surgery. And boy did we wait. I knew there was a Timmies at the main enterance so I did not have breakfast or a coffee before  leaving. Mistake! I found out too late that that Timmies does not open until 8:00 AM un Sunday. Can you believe that? Nobody has a hangover at this hospital on a Sunday?

I finally did get my coffee and breakfast when it did open. Later on in the morning, MA’s roommate was leaving and was in need of a wheelchair so I offered mine. I did not realize at the time that we were going to be here a while and that MA was going to need it to go to the washroom as we left the crutches in the car. So, back I went to get another one and, since they were by the Timmies, another coffee.

I did not enjoy the second coffee as much as the first. I was sitting by the window and after a few sips of my coffee, I put it down on the ledge but it caught the edge and fell all over me and the floor. I lost most of the cup and now I needed to clean the floor with the cheap paper towels from the bathroom. It turns out that newspaper soaks up more liquid that those cheap towels. For the rest of the day, I smelt like coffee. Great!

After a few more hours of listening to MA dry heave, she was finnally called for surgery. It was now 1:30 PM. At this point, I decided to grab lunch and then take a nap on MA’s bed as it was going to be a late night for me as I needed to pick up Geneviève at the school after 11:00 PM as she was coming back from a school trip in TO. Though I did not drink much of the second cup of coffee, I guess I was still wired because I could not sleep. Normally, after a meal I get very tired but not this time. So I cracked open my iPad and watched some movies. The first one I watched was Goon which is all about a bouncer who becomes a hockey player. It is very funny with a lot of senseless violence. After that, the next movie was Straight Out Of Compton, a movie about the beginning and end of the rap group NWA, more violence and swearing. I was the only person in the room so  I did not bother to put in the headphones. Half way through the second movie, MA showed up at around 4:15 PM. I had told her what I had been doing and she said “I know, we could hear it in the hall”! Oops, hope there were no kids around.

MA was still a bit groggy from the surgery and the nausea was still there. We stuck around for another few hours while the nurses took vitals and ensured that MA was progressing well. We finally were able to leave by 7:00 PM.

We got home to find out that the kids made dinner for us, in part with some help from some generous friends who gave us some meat pies. Though MA did not feel like eating, I ate with the girls. It was good to see them as I had not seen them all day. They also did the dishes and made a feel better cake for us while we were away. It was very nice of them.

Though all I wanted to do was go to bed, I stayed up so that I could pick up G at school. I got the call to pick her up at about 10:30 PM. She showed up shortly after 11:00. By the time we packed her up and got home, I was finally able to go to bed at 11:45 PM. What a long day but glad it went well.