July 8 - “The Procedure”

We got up just a leeeeetle early yesterday. How does 4:30 sound? Yes, there was a reason. I should hope so. Chris had a procedure at the hospital to remove the loop recorder from under her skin. The battery was dead after several years of service, so the doc said to just take it out and see what happens over the next six months or so. 

Chris was the first in line for that mini-surgery room. In fact, there was only one guy there for a heart cath. Kinda weird being in an empty waiting room with only three procedures listed on the board. Not sure when they actually got started, but I got kicked out a little after seven. 

And then …

After a little while the nurse came out to get me, ostensibly to bring Chris her clothes to head home. The nurse’s first words to me were, “so … well …”.  Not a good start. Here’s the text I sent to Nathan and April (our family “medical team”):

“Good morning! Mom is at it again. We are here to remove the loop recorder. 5 minute procedure. In and out. Poof! Easy peasy, right?

“Not with her. They can’t find it! It keeps moving when they think they have located it. Now we’re waiting for a cath lab opening so they can do it under an X-ray. 

Woohoo!”

Then we entered … The Waiting Game. Not to be confused with The Progress Game. I guess you can’t hurry a heart cath. After an hour or two, we began having people stick their head in and express surprise at our presence. Before too long, we were moved to another room. When they offered to show us how to operate the TV, I figured we might there for the long haul. I was right. 

They finally came to get her again at 10:15, and I was kicked out to the waiting room again. What was supposed to be a simple five minute procedure seemed to take forever from my perspective. 

11:08 - The nurse came out to tell me she was done and I could go back to her room. There Chris detailed the issues they had been having. The loop recorder kept slipping away from them and disappearing into nothingness. It was as if there was a tiny Mario Cart driver operating the thing with the express purpose of getting away from the Giant Evil Pliers. They were finally successful, though, and the doc was quite pleased with his efforts. Next step was wait for the doc to come in and officially discharge her. 

11:45 - Nurse Melissa (a former Seaside youth, by the way) brought us some more juice (she had brought some earlier), a turkey sandwich, and a warm blueberry muffin. We shared it. Hospital bland yumminess. 

12:01 - New report. Doc is in yet another procedure. When he is done there, he will write the orders. 

12:06 - Doc finally came in and verbally released Chris.  Nurse followed soon after to unhook everything and remove the IV line. 

12:15 - Out the door. Phew! 

We did stop at Randall’s and Walmart on the way home. Just grabbed one or two final items for our big trips coming up. Quite the day, for sure. 

Proverbs‬ ‭9‬:‭10‬ says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Father, thanks for the success of the procedure. Please heal the incision site quickly. Amen.