MPOV

Meghan's Point of View

It was a normal day, hot summer dry heat - the heat of Denver, Colorado. I climbed into the backseat and we drove off to the hospital. I sat in the back listening to every word Honora and my mom said to each other, chipping in now and then... the norm. It seemed surreal that it was finally happening. I was sending texts back and forth to Daniel, like always, and hardly thinking about the fact that my mom was going in for major surgery - I think that's the way it had to be.

When we got to the hospital, Honora parked the car. We walked over to the check in; it took a while, but finally we were waiting to see my mom before surgery. Waiting for them to tell us what was going on. It was only the beginning of the long wait. If I had known how much would be in store for us, I would have better prepared myself, Daniel, and my overly exhausted mind and body. We were called in a few minutes before her surgery - we had been promised 20 minutes - and as soon as we were in we were ushered out by the anesthesiologist. My mother held me for a long time and almost started crying - I was OK but I felt so bad for her knowing I was leaving her alone. All alone. Honora assured me she would soon have her happy juice.

We got back in the waiting room and thus hell commenced. The waiting might have been the most stressful part of the surgery, thus far. We waited to hear if surgery had even started, worrying about bad reactions to going under, or complications with the nerve block. We waited to hear if she was out, if she was OK, when we could see her. We only heard from them three times and always from our own pushing efforts at the front desk - they never told us anything. It had been an hour since my mom was supposed to be out of surgery, forty minutes from when they told us we could see her. I was dying inside, I had a fight with Daniel because of all the stress building up in me and his stress over seeing me so scared. It eventually got cleared up - even before I was able to see my mom - however, that was not surprising as we were not able to see her till three hours after her scheduled start.

I remember the relief of seeing her face. She was so out of it. The nurse walked in ahead of me. He said, "Someone very important is here to see you." Her smile looked like the sun on the Raisin Brain box, large and bright but ever so high. I smiled at her and set down her belongings and then walked over. The first thing she said to me was "O my baby's here." I couldn't help but choke back the tears a little, I was so grateful to see her alive and well... I don't even want to talk about all the horrible things going through my head while we were waiting.

Honora joined us shortly, after feeding Elizabeth, and soon all three of us were in the room smiling at each other. It only went downhill a little when the nurses were in the room. Mama kept raving about how she didn't think they would be nice to her because she was fat, she was being a little snappish with the nurse, and Honora kept telling her to simmer down a little. My mom was very emotional she wanted to hold me for a long time. Even though it hurt my back to bend over and be held for so long, it made us both feel a little better. Finally Dr. Xenos her surgeon came in and told us all that had gone on during the surgery. My mom kept asking him over and over again if she had her new knee and if it went well. He tried to tease her and she freaked out on him - he shortly left the room. She didn't even remember a word he said though.

Eventually my mom began to wake up enough to begin to feel nauseous and throw up. It was very sad and Debbie (her first nurse) wouldn't come in to help her. My mom said she had two favorite nurses: Susan a woman with a long whip-like blond red braid down her back (night shift), and Viki an older nurse who also took great care of my mother. I couldn't leave her though, we had planned on it, but the first night somehow Honora, Elizabeth and I all wound up cuddling up real close on the couch.

The room at first seemed huge, but eventually began to suffocate all three of us. We went home to grab things for me to spend the night again the second night. The couch wasn't much better even then and the room was freezing but my mom liked it so we didn't turn it up much.

My mother went through such a hard time the second night. I remember being so stressed and worried about her constantly. She had a lot of nausea. Also the second day, she was in a lot of pain from her ot and pt. So when we came back from grabbing something to eat, I had to see her in agonizing pain. That might have been almost as bad as the waiting room, had it not eventually gotten back under control. The first night was the toughest and I found myself more exhausted than I ever thought I could be. However, eventually we got into a swing of things. As I stayed three and a half days in that hospital, I began to understand how to help her and all about the floor plan of the gigantic hospital.

I was very concerned about my hygiene while in the hospital too. Though I had greasy hair, no deodorant, little make up and none at sometimes, and rough hair - that wouldn't have bothered me had it not been for all the nurses coming in ALL THE TIME.

The best highlights of the whole thing go as this:

1) seeing my mom with her new knee and new lease on life

2) leaving the hospital

3) cuddling with my mom in the tiny hospital bed

4) showering

5) the food