Waiting...

Today was Steve's' trial / surgery for his pain interrupter. My role was driving, giving support, and... waiting.

I'd tell you that it started with in the appropriately named waiting room. That'd be a lie. It started at 2:45 AM, waiting to see if I could get back to sleep until it was 5 AM, when we'd actually scheduled for me to get up for the morning routine before leaving. When I couldn't, it meant quietly waiting while the others slept until 5AM to take my thyroid pill, waiting another 20 minutes plus before having something to eat with my coffee and pills, watching a speck of TV while waiting for it to be time to leave the house.

We didn't do so good with that bit, heading out nearly half an hour early. The doors wouldn't even be unlocked for half an hour, and the drive was less than 5 minutes. It did give us time to appreciate the colors It's still 3-digit high temperatures here. It also provided a chance to relax.

There wasn't much waiting between checking in and Steve getting called back. His was the first procedure of the day. I was told to expect him to be out around 8 AM, and yes, I had to stay put, not even go to the car for a few to counteract the deep chill of the waiting room. (I always under-dress for those places.) Instead I was offered a blanket. Gratefully accepted.

I'd brought my kindle to pass the time, but discovered the book I was into is one of those best taken in small doses to avoid sleeping through it. Tough to read that way. My brain tends to go off in other directions and I find myself abruptly awake wondering how much of what just happened was actually written by the author. Generally very little.

Giving up on the kindle, I switched to people watching. People tended to show up in couples, and I tried to guess which of the two was here for a procedure and which was the designated driver. Sometimes I was right. It's not always the decrepit one. Walkers are a dead giveaway, though.

About 15 minutes before I expected Steve to be done, a young woman hustles in wheeling a large case and apologizing to those manning the desk for being late. She had thought she was scheduled for afternoon. I had a sneaking suspicion I was going to hear what I did, shortly. She was the tech which Steve's procedure was waiting on. Oops.

I also quickly learned that his Doc had started with another patient who didn't need her services. Quite understandable. Steve just might be done in another hour... or so. Would I like another blanket? Again gratefully accepted.

After the "or so" I was called back in to the recovery area to have the explanations of what he needed, since he was still high from the anesthetic: which things he could and couldn't do, where to find the phone number if things went wrong, like a certain little red button getting pushed. It was also explained to me that it would take about two days for this procedure to take effect. It's kind of like an antibiotic, needing to build up to a certain level before change is noticed. But rather than being able to front-load the current like they front-load medications, it just takes the body that long to notice it's working.

So now it's Steve who's doing the waiting.