A Day Of Waiting!

Hi, Ya'll!

Yesterday was a long day for both of us. The doctor's office called late on Tuesday and told Sharon not to go to the hospital until noon on Wednesday. They were kind enough to tell her she could eat breakfast, but then nothing after that. The most difficult part of the entire day was the waiting, and waiting and waiting!

The surgery waiting room is also the ICU waiting room. It was overflowing with large family groups. The noise level kept going up and up. Finally, Sharon and I were ushered over to the pre-op area. That was a blessing. Sharon was grateful for the quiet of a curtain drawn cubicle, and so was I! They had trouble finding a place to put the IV. The nurse anesthetist even tried her foot, to no avail! Her best arm for IV's is her left arm, but since that was the shoulder to be operated on, that was not an option. They finally found a "good" vein on the inside of her right wrist. It worked!!

She was wheeled into surgery at 2:15. At 2:50, the OR nurse came and told me that the doctor was going to have to do the humeral head replacement because there was too much arthritis to do a simple cleaning. She said it would be another hour or so. Well, 3:50 came and went. Finally, at 4:30, the doctor came out. He was unable to replace just the "ball" part of the bone because of the extensive damage in her shoulder. (She directed too many choir programs during her teaching career!) So, Sharon now has a brand new, total shoulder replacement!!

I was allowed back in the recovery room about 5:30. She was having a significant amount of pain and the medication was not helping a whole lot. One of the anesthesiologist came in about 6:30 and gave her a "block" above the shoulder and that seemed to help immediately. The recovery room nurse was getting ready to call report to the floor nurse, when a "Medical Emergency" was called for the floor she was going to! That delayed her transfer. Finally, about 8:00 P.M., she was taken to the room. She seemed to be doing okay. Her shoulder was wrapped with an ice machine similar to what I had when my knee was done.

One of my step-daughters, Teresa, is a nurse at the hospital where Sharon is a patient. She is a nurse manager of telemetry and CCU. She came to check on us and stayed with us until Sharon was settled in her room. Teresa had been at work since 6:45 in the morning. She was such a sweetheart to stay so late. I left the hospital about 9:00 P.M. and went home.

I will keep everyone updated on Sharon's progress as much as possible. Right now, I am going to get myself ready and head to the hospital!

Until next time. . . .. .