A Long, Tough Day

So yesterday was the supposed day of surgery. An early morning rise to travel into the hospital. I was obviously feeling very nervous but knew my surgery wasn’t until the afternoon so at that stage I wasn’t too bad. However, every time someone called me in to see me I got more and more nervous.

My first check up was with a nurse named Patrick. He asked me just the usual medical questions then took my blood pressure which was a little high but he didn’t seem too worried about that. He obviously didn’t know what operation I was having for he didn’t even know I was staying at the hospital after the surgery. As I was walking out he told me that my surgery should be soon because I’m second on my surgeon’s list. This surprised me because at this stage it was only about 9:30 and I knew I had an afternoon surgery. However, as I mentioned he didn’t know what operation I was having so he may have thought that it was a simpler quick procedure.

For the next few hours I just sat in the surgery waiting room watching a lot of abc kids. I had one other nurse come see me and he just talked me through very briefly what the surgery would be like. He didn’t really give me any information I didn’t already know. I went back to the waiting room and sat there with nothing to do up until about 1:30. At this stage I was really bored. I had expected my surgery to be around about this time so every time I saw a nurse come out with hospital robes I got quite nervous that it might be me next. Also I was expecting it to be soon as all the other people in the waiting room with me that morning had gone in for surgery and it was just me left. New afternoon patients were coming in but I was the only original patient left. That’s when two nurses came out and called my name. I was quite confused because they didn’t have any robes so I knew it wasn’t surgery time but I couldn’t think of what else I could possibly need done. I went over to them and they told me that the anaesthetist had asked me to have the apple juice she gave them. That made me very happy as I was sooo hungry. I hadn’t eaten since 9 the past night and had my list sip of water at 7:30 that morning. That apple juice was definitely the best I’ve ever had. They gave me a pager so I could get up and walk around the hospital a bit.

My pager started ringing at about 2. I went back to the waiting room and met an anaesthetist. I got nervous thinking it was actually time to go in but then she told me she would just be having a chat to me about a few things. She talked me through everything that would happen in the surgery. This made me really nervous for I knew it must be soon. She told me to go wait out in the waiting room and I’d be taken in shortly. I was so scared but while waiting I soon calmed down and went back to just being bored. At this point I think I had watched 3 Play School episodes, 2 Sesame Street, 2 Giggle and Hoot, 2 Bananas in Pyjamas and many more random shows I’ve never heard of.

I was so confused though. I’d met an anaesthetist and I was completely ready for surgery so why was it taking so long. My mum started worrying that it could be cancelled but I didn’t think so. My dad went up to reception and asked them if it could be and they said ‘we’re not going to tell you it won’t be but we highly doubt they will.’

At 4 o’clock (after 8 hours at the hospital) my surgeon walked out. At this point there were only two other patients left in the waiting room. I was quite confused why he came out for I hadn’t seen any other surgeons in the waiting room that day. He came over and said ‘You know it’s bad if you see me.’ My first thought went back to my high blood pressure checked earlier that day but I soon realised it was a bigger issue than that. He told me that the operation before me had had many complications. They kept thinking they were finished but something kept happening. He said it went a lot longer than expected and for my surgery we wouldn’t start until about 6. He said everyone on his team were so exhausted and it was too late to start so he’d have to cancel the surgery. We then had to leave and drive back home.

When he came to speak to me he was very apologetic and looked so exhausted so I’m glad he made the responsible decision to cancel the surgery because no one should have to operate like that. Obviously I’m absolutely devastated about this but as my family friend who’s a nurse said, they don’t like cancelling surgeries and they’d only do it if they really had to. It is very annoying for I had been building up to that day for a month and I was finally prepared to go in and do it.

Now today I’m waiting for a call from one of the administrating nurses, Donna. I’ve been waiting to hear when I could possibly have the surgery. I don’t really know what I want. I guess I came to terms with the fact that I’d be missing some things and now I know I actually can participate in them it feels weird. I was ready for surgery and I didn’t want to put it off anymore. I guess I want the surgery as soon as possible, I just don’t know when that will be.