If you know me and my squeamish nature, you know I am probably not the logical person to accompany someone into surgery. However, when you are between jobs and available and have a vehicle, it becomes logical.
Today, I drove my nephew Tony down to UW Hospital in Madison for knee surgery. We left town at 10 a.m. so we could be there by noon – 2 hours before the scheduled procedure. He has been having pain in his knees and they were going in via the arthroscopic route to "clean out" the area and take some tissue to be biopsied.
He was all set to go in his purple gown, which had a vent to pump in hot air for warmth – oh yeah, I need one of those – and white compression socks, which resembled ladies' panty hose. So I left him in the capable hands of the cute nurses and went for a walk.
They have an amazing walking trail around the outskirts of campus, which I discovered last time. I was just getting close to my 10,000 steps when Tony called me and said he hadn't gone in yet! So they were a bit behind.
So I grabbed a pumpkin spice latte from the coffee shop, opened a book and read for an hour. I was kept apprised of his progress through a pager.
When he was done, the doctor talked to me since Tony was still coming out of recovery. The doctor was so kind to show me no less than 30 photos of the procedure. They have a little camera that travels right into the knee with the other instruments. I feigned interest and tried to concentrate on what he was saying while not looking at the pictures. No fainting on my watch!
We had a smooth ride home and thankfully didn't have to use the "puke bucket" I brought with "just in case" he didn't react well to the anesthesia. Tony was fine though, and was even able to sort of walk on his left leg later.
Drove home this evening so he could start his recovery. I was glad to concentrate on not hitting any deer. That put those lovely snapshots out of my head.
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