Finally getting to post about the day today. First things first…The procedure went well today. There have been no issues as of yet. YAY! They got in there, did what they needed to do, and got out. Now for the long story…

We got an early start to the morning. We dropped the dogs off at the puppy hotel so that they could play with the others while momdad play hospital. Filled out some paper work there and fed the dogs a couple of treats and we were off!

Of course any time we have to come to the hospital I get nervous and anxious so I drive without talking and worry that we are going to be late. but we weren’t. We were early! YAY! Honey got checked in and had her paperwork already filled out (more timesavers! YAY!) and they took her back for prep. She got blood drawn from her port and got her IV plugged in to her port and put on her sexy hospital gown…YAY! And we were still early! YAY! Lemme back up here for a moment. We were supposed to check in at 9:45 am and then wait to be taken back to pre-op. well, since we were early we were back in pre-op in gown by 9:45. OK so now we start waiting…Honey gets some anti nausea drugs and antibiotics.

Mama called at around 10:45 or so and I went down to meet her in the hospital lobby. We came back up to Honey and talked and around 11:15 or so it was time for Honey to go on back to the OR. At this point Mama and I headed out to the waiting area. We chatted for a long while and played with Mama’s cell phone to see how the voice dialing piece worked. Around 12:15 or so Mama and I went down and had lunch at the cafeteria. Food was good (still not as good as MD Anderson) and around an hour later we headed back up to the waiting room. I checked with the front desk and asked if Honey was back yet and they told me that they were just now wheeling her back on to post-op and that a nurse would come out to get us. So Mama and I wait…SIGH. Now let me just tell you that the nurse who was helping us all day was great in that she was very nice, she always answered our questions, and she didn’t freak-out every time I came to get her when Honey needed something. So now that being said…Mama and I waited about another hour before the nurse came out to get us. Mama and Honey exchanged some gifts and we set Mama free.

I settled in to a game of solitaire on my cell phone expecting that (and knowing that) Honey had a 5.5 hour wait until she could leave post-op and move to her room for the night. Let me tell you that Honey had been pumped full of IV fluids and had drank some water before the procedure and had apple juice afterwards and now had a full bladder. She had to pee! but being forced to lie on your back for 5+ hours does not help in trying to empty out the bladder. So she had some heavy discomfort from that. Let me back up again here. Honey got to post-op at around 1:40 pm. OK now. As we get closer and closer to the end of her prescribed bed rest she feels more and more discomfort from her bladder being full and no amount of pain meds helped with that situation. Mr Honey is trying to find someone to help out. We are trying to figure out what we can do to empty her bladder (it just ain’t happening lying down) and our nurse has taken one of her other patients up to their overnight room and has not returned yet. Finally at around 5:45 or so our nurse comes back and she gives Honey the go ahead to get up and get into the bathroom. YAY pee business gets done and Honey feels sooo much better! YAY! Now back to bed in post-op and our nurse tells us that we are now just waiting on a room to be cleaned up for us for the night.

The clock ticks.

Nurse comes back over and suggests to Honey that she order some food from the cafeteria. Honey does that and I decide that I am going to go grab some Subway. I get directions out of the hospital and across the street to Subway…It is now around 6:50 pm. I am the last customer at Subway for the day as they are cleaning everything up and turning off the open light in the window. I take my sandwich and have to hoof it back around the hospital to the front (the Subway shop is on the back side of the hospital and their are no visitor entrances on the back of the hospital) and I make my way back up to the post-op area. Cafeteria food is not ready yet and we are waiting on that. I am starting to get frustrated because the post-op area is very cramped. I eat my sandwich and we talk with our nurse and she says that we will be able to go up to our room for the night at quarter to 8. YAY!

Well we get to wait some more…quarter to 8 comes and goes and Honey still does not have her food and we are not in our room. Our nurse has to go down to the cafeteria and hand them the order form that she had faxed down earlier and Honey finally gets her food. YAY! At this time in our day I am no longer paying attention to what time it is….it is all just turning in to a blur to me.

Now we are waiting on our room. After Honey has eaten her food we can’t help but overhear some other people a couple of beds down in post-op talking about their situation. The lady a couple of beds over also has liver cancer. I asked Honey if she would like to talk to her (she sounds young and in our age range) and Honey thinks it is a good idea. I walk over and apologize for interrupting and ask the lady if she would not mind chatting with my wife because everyone else we have met so far with liver cancer has been over 50. Well needless to say we met a very nice couple named Rick and Kelly. Kelly and Honey chatted about their different ordeals and what stage they are at in the whole process and such. Kelly is just starting her journey with liver cancer so honey wrote down a page full of resources for Kelly to look at and passed on her email address in case she had questions.

After meeting new friends in post-op it is finally time to move up to our room for the night. We are now settled in and Honey has taken her pain meds and is now lightly snoring as I finish this post. It is 11:48 on my computer and time for me to try to sleep. Honey will update you some more tomorrow with our day.

Good night!

YAY!