Day 208

Today was surgery day for Ellen.  We got up at 4:30, left at 5:00, and got to the hospital about5:30.  That's the quickest I'll ever get to Mopac and Parmer.

Of course once we got there everything was late.  The preop was half an hour late, after that the surgeon was late, then the surgery took longer than planned, then they didn't have a room so she was left in the PACU.  All in all she didn't get to a room until 4:30.

Of course I spent most of that time sitting in a waiting area.  I spent most of the first part of the wait playing a Minion's party.  I tried a new strategy which looks like it's optimal for the current way the game plays.

The operating room nurse actually called me several times to update me on the progress.  When it became obvious that they were going to be really late I left to go home.  There was no way I could leave the dog for 14 hours.  I had to rush to make sure I was back in time to talk to the surgeon after the surgery.

I made great time going home.  The dog was wild.  She had knocked things off the dresser and taken the covers off the bed.  She also shredded the cat's catnip toy.  She even tore up my watch instruction book on the headboard.  I took her outside, she pissed and shit, and then I put her back.  She was really really unhappy.  I shortened the lead so she couldn't reach as much stuff.

I would have made it back with no problem except some asshole piled it up on the Mopac by the river.  The left two lanes were blocked.  The backup was over a mile and a half long.  The only good thing was that the nurse called while I was stalled in it to say that the surgery was taking longer.

When I got back I didn't play Minions while waiting any more even though I had 90 minutes of party time left.  Instead I talked with this 85 year old lady who was waiting for her son to get out of surgery.  We had a great talk.  It was more entertaining than Minions.

I got back in plenty of time to talk to the surgeon.  He said everything went well.  He used the robot and was able to reconnect her bowel.  We won't know about the lymph nodes until next week.  If she goes through chemo, she'll have the bag for about 4 months.

Because they were so late I hung around her room until after 6:30.  I stopped at Fry's to get her a long USB cord and then came home.  I'm really tired.

Lucy had managed to undo the knot I used to shorten the lead.  That allowed her to chew up a picture we had on the dresser.  She also managed to completely remove the covers from the bed.  I cleaned that up, had a TV dinner, cleaned the cat box, emailed Ellen's status to a couple of people, and now I'm going to bed.