Surgery Diary

Dear George,

I decided to keep a diary during Katja’s surgery experience this week.  Here is how it turned out.  

Love,

Dave

BEFOREHAND: 5 p.m., Wed., Nov. 6, 2019

Suffering from bad arthritic pain, Katja has been scheduled for shoulder replacement surgery for a couple of months.  Now we’re just 16 hours away.  We’re both nervous, though we don’t talk about it much.  Today I googled “Dangers of Shoulder Replacement Surgery,” and that was somewhat reassuring.  The website described a high rate of success for the operation with complications occurring in less than 5% of cases.  Still I worried about the 5%.  We’re both in an age group where the percent might be higher.  I thought about asking Katja to show me once again how to use the coffee grinder and the dishwasher in case of her demise but thought better of it.  She won’t be able to use her right arm for a month or more, so I will be getting plenty of practice in the kitchen.  She did have replacement surgery on her left shoulder about nine years ago, and my recollection was that recovery wasn’t much of a problem.  I told that to a friend who looked at me like I was crazy.  She said Katja was in pain for weeks afterward and I was totally stressed out.  I don’t remember any of it.  Apparently my memory operates to keep life as pleasant as possible, no matter how delusional.    I am just going to grit my teeth and tough it out.  

DURING: Noon, Thurs., Nov. 7, 2019

I’m sitting in the Surgery Visitor’s Waiting Room.  The surgeon will come here when the operation is done to let me know how things went, probably in about ninety minutes.  Katja seemed to be in reasonable spirits when they took her off to get a pain blocker in her shoulder.  However, her last instructions to me were that she is an organ donor, absolutely wants to be buried in a coffin and not cremated, and wants me to sit with her corpse for several hours to make sure she is actually dead.  I took this all in silently and gave her a goodbye (for now) kiss.  Both of us have had on our minds a friend’s wife who had routine minor surgery and died on the operating table.  I am trying to stay calm while waiting here by myself, though it is a strange, unreal experience. 

AFTERWARD: 3:10 P.M., Thurs., Nov. 7, 2019

A message board in the waiting room gives information on patient’s progress (e.g., incision, recovery, room).  As it turned out, I was given the wrong tracking number and was actually following the progress of a Robert Tucker.  When the volunteer discovered this, she said that Katja was now in recovery and that the surgeon would be talking to me any minute.  However, thirty minutes went by and no surgeon.  I started imagining that something terrible had happened to delay him.  The volunteer checked and said that the doctor was busy with another patient, but that a nurse would come out to talk to me any minute.  Another thirty minutes passed.  More terrible premonitions.  Finally the surgeon did arrive at 2:50 and said that the operation was a complete success.  Katja will stay overnight.  They will get her moving to try to avoid pneumonia.  If she is doing well she’ll be discharged before lunch tomorrow.  Whew!

HOURS LATER: 6:15 p.m., Thurs., Nov. 7, 2019

I’ve been in Katja’s spacious fifth-floor room for a couple of hours.  She is very perky, has no pain at all because of the block she received, and is in a good (drug-induced) mood.  Our son J** will arrive at the airport from New Orleans at 10:30 tonight, and I’ll pick him up.  J** is a rehab physician so he will be a big help.  Things are looking much more rosy.    

THE NEXT MORNING: 11:55 a.m., Fri., Nov. 8, 2019

Justin and I arrived at the hospital at 8:45 a.m., and Katja was overjoyed to see us.  I felt good to be all together as a family.  The occupational therapist and the physical therapist arrived shortly afterwards and went over the ins and outs of the recovery process.  Meds, exercise, doing tasks like dressing, things to avoid.  It all left me with a bit of trepidation.  If she moves her arm incorrectly, it could dislocate her shoulder and result in rehospitalization.  In any case, Katja was discharged at 12:30, and we headed home.  She was happy to be out but said she had also been happy being in the hospital.  I felt uneasy about the coming days and was glad to have J**’s support for the weekend.  Recovery will take 4 to 6 weeks.  We will see what happens next.