Visiting a post-operative maaseru...

[fajrdrako]

Gord was able to drive me to the hospital after work, thank goodness - I don't know how I'd have got there otherwise. I had custody of maaseru's bag of stuff that she needed for a few days in the hospital, and of course I just wanted to visit and see her. She had surgery on one of her bad knees.

The hospital information desk no longer has people at it; just a telephone. Maybe it's staffed at some times of the day - there was a chair. It took the voice on the phone a while to track maaseru to the Recovery Unit, since she didn't have a room yet; it wasn't visiting hours, but they said I could go in and leave the bag. Take the elevator to the third floor, and follow the green dots.

I went to the third floor. I found the green dots, which went past the elevator in both directions. I picked a direction at random - inevitably, the wrong one - and found myself in a ward of gowned and bandaged people. A kind nurse looked up where maaseru was, and actually took me there - quite a long hike in the opposite direction. The third floor is very quiet, all operating rooms and post-op patients sleeping on gurneys. No visitors, no bustle.

Though two different sources had told me maaseru was in the Recovery Unit, there is no room labelled "Recovery Unit" - instead it's the PACU for Post-Anaesthetic Care Unit. You have to call them from a phone outside the door to be admitted.

maaseru was asleep when I arrived, but she must have heard me explain to the nurse that I'd come to bring her bags, because she pried an eye partly open and said hello. I explained that I'd brought the bag and they weren't letting me stay but I'd come back after six, when visitors were allowed, or at least briefly tolerated. I asked how she felt. "Sleepy," she murmured, and fell asleep again.

I went to the cafeteria and had tepid liver with onions and vegetables for supper - actually rather good, considering hospital cafeterias. Orange jello for dessert, just because it seemed so suitable to eat jello in a hospital. The alternative dessert, chocolate cake with sprinkles, looked dessicated and vaguely dangerous. The cafeteria was huge and largely empty.

After six, I returned to the PACU and they said I could visit "but only for a few minutes". So I took up space at the side of maaseru's bed, leaning on her guardrail, and stayed for about ninety minutes - more than a few by my definition, but I guess I was non-disruptive and it was clear maaseru liked having me there.

She was eating supper when I arrived, and making a good meal of it, considering the circumstances - between her drugged sleepiness and all those tubes, including oxygen in her nose. She wasn't very mobile, but was handling her soup spoon deftly in a sort of careful slow motion. She was barely awake most of the time, and kept falling asleep between sentences, sometimes in the middle of sentences, once even in the middle of a word. It made for nice low-key, undemanding conversation. She kept apologizing for being boring - which would be absurd even if she was. If anyone was boring, it was me. She confided that her knee didn't feel much different, but given all the circumstances, it's a wonder she could feel her body at all.

I was able to hold her cup for sips of apple juice, and tea. The only near-mishap was when she picked up her cup of tea to take a sip and fell asleep simultaneously - I had to grab the cup before it dropped. "Oops," she said, waking up a little.

At almost eight o'clock, they asked me to leave.

I walked home. The Civic Hospital is only a few miles from my place, and I've been feeling desperate for exercise, slightly stir crazy from not getting out about, and it was a good evening for walking. It has been snowing for the better part of two days, but the sidewalks had mostly been ploughed on those streets, so the walking wasn't bad. Now my legs are tired, but it was satisfying. Fresh air - what a concept.

Comments

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad your ankle is good enough that you can walk that distance now.

I noticed the sidewalks were quite decent by this evening (when we went out to see some local musicians). They were certainly much better than last night when I was slipping and sliding with a heavy backpack stuffed with library books (no, I haven't learned from your experience, but at least I wasn't walking alone).

Does maaseru want visitors? I'd be happy to drop in to say hi or bring her what she needs.

Of course she's exhausted and micro-sleeping: the tea incident was funny, but absolutely believable.

We'd be happy to feed you if you want to drop by Friday late afternoon or evening. Just give us a call.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

I too am glad to hear that your ankle is so functional -- after just 9 months. :-)

I noticed the sidewalks were quite decent by this evening ...

Sadly, not everywhere. I walked from Altavista Library to my home near S. Keys this evening, and kept encountering places where the sidewalk plows either were not able to get through (mainly because of obstacles such as newsboxes) or never bothered to plow in the first place. Greenboro bridge (over the railway tracks) is in particularly parlous shape if you're a pedestrian.

I will be going to the demonstration tomorrow at City Hall to voice my contempt for Mayor Larry and hand out copies of my Open Letter (http://community.livejournal.com/octranspo/484973.html) aimed at Councillors. [Not everyone reads LJ.] If City Council can be persuaded to even discuss, much less vote on, the Mediator's proposal, the end of this strike will be That Much Closer -- and Mayor Larry will find himself rather Lonely, no?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad your ankle is good enough that you can walk that distance now.

Yes. Though the ankle still feels different - stiff - it doesn't hurt and doesn't seem to be an impediment to walking. My balance is better, too - I did that whole walk without the cane and didn't feel anxious about it.

slipping and sliding with a heavy backpack stuffed with library books (no, I haven't learned from your experience, but at least I wasn't walking alone).

Don't know if I'll manage to keep my resolution about not getting out too many books. But meanwhile - I can keep most of the books I do have out until March, because of the Rideau Branch being closed. Which is cool. It's the time factor in getting the books to and from the library that's an issue, rather than distance. On the whole.

Does [info]maaseru want visitors? I'd be happy to drop in to say hi or bring her what she needs.

It is nice of you to offer and I'll ask her.

the tea incident was funny, but absolutely believable.

I was glad I was there. Otherwise she'd have had a wet hospital gown.

We'd be happy to feed you if you want to drop by Friday late afternoon or evening. Just give us a call.

What a wonderful offer! I may indeed - that would be nice, and you are, under the circumstances, so well located. I'll phone you when I know more about what's happening, and how I'm going to get there. Taxis at rush hour seem totally unfeasible - it would take so long even if I could get one. Walking from downtown - a little daunting, but possible. We'll see.