January 29th The 103 7:49am
I have to be very grown up
this is what grown-ups do
They go to Operations
–
11:15am Queen Elizabeth II (Old VG) Halifax
“See Ya” rings out cheerily
in the halls
–
12:45pm
I wait, rest, in a room
thematically named “Beach”
Hunter was taken away @ 12:15
an hour & 45 minutes before scheduled
I wait to hear a “start time”
–
1:56pm
I am waiting for a “start time”
has the surgery started yet?
(note: shortly after writing this I was told
the “Cut Time” was 1:30
and was given a 3 hour “window”)
I see, for the first time,
10:22 is Really 22:22
on the 24 hour clock
(to spell it out for everybody)
It’s very loud around here — there’s
actually raucous laughter across
the hall
luckily I am the only person in this
“Beach Room”
(note: one woman came in with reminiscences
of a trip through the Caribbean and described
how She would have jumped ship into the open arms
of a big black woman in the surf, who had a smile
as big as She was)
–
2:30pm
(note: checked into The Lord Nelson)
–
3:00pm
(note: cell phone call from surgeon:
“Mrs Blair — I’m calling to say
the operation went very well
Your Husband will be in Recovery
about two hours”)
–
(note: made phone calls to friends and relatives
had to find out Hunter’s Private Isolation Room
and visited Him there for a couple of hours
where the door was kept open and I was allowed
ungowned
though Hunter was a suspected MRSA* carrier
Hunter seemed wonderful — five abdominal incisions
for laparoscopy to fix a hernia and esophagus)
–
9:27pm The Lord Nelson Victory Arms Pub
I’m drinking Keith’s On Tap
& about to order a club
& Greek salad
The Waiter said
“You’re not from around here
are You”
*Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aurius
also known as The Super Bug
Joanna Gilman Hyde 