He Did It!

The ride to the hospital was annoying as usual.

Dad got reprimanded for not reading through all of the materials the doctor gave him with his instructions. What a surprise! He did nothing to prepare at all.

Good thing I came with! My parents don't pay attention to anything. They didn't have a consent form ready for the filter that they needed to insert to prevent blood clots. So, I asked, and the nurse called and was able to obtain one.

Surgery
They actually took him down at about 7:25 a.m., but his surgery didn't take place till 9:30 a.m. Not sure what the hold up was, but Dr. Goldstein had another guy before dad, and he started late! Mom and I went to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast.

They have a cool T.V. screen in the waiting area where you can monitor the progress. It's like a flight schedule at the airport. It was sooooo boring waiting. The gift shop wasn't open, so the Receptionist found me some old magazines and a newspaper. I read all of the obituaries. A Mafia guy died.

He was out of surgery around 10:30 a.m., and we met with Dr. Goldstein. Now we know why the required the filter to be put in at the last minute! Dr. Goldstein's partner lost a 48 year old patient last week due to a blood clot. He said it's so worth it to have this 10 minute procedure. He said to leave it in rather than removing it. So, dad will probably outlive us all!

Dr. Goldstein said that it would take about 90 minutes before he would be out of recovery, so we ran to Old Orchard, which is right next door. It was beautiful out, and we went to the California Pizza Kitchen. When we sat down, I was overwhelmed with the smell of peanuts. Mom switched seats with me, and she smelled it too. I think a lady next to us brought something from home for her child, but I didn't feel like dying, so we moved to a new area.

Mom's foot had a blister, so I had to trade shoes with her and go get the car on the opposite side of the mall and pick her up. It's very congested around Old Orchard!

When we returned, over two hours later, dad still wasn't out of recovery. I guess he doesn't recover well from the anesthetic like mom and I. Shortly, after we arrived, they assigned him Room 541. It's a private room with a view of the parking lot.

I didn't bring my laptop, but there is one in the waiting area on dad's floor. Yippee!