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Successful!
Yes, the operation went very well.
I got a place in a ward with only women (purely by chance). Both the other ladies in the ward had much greater problems than I had. One was there for a bypass operation, the other had to be operated because of cancer. The fourth bed in the ward wasn’t occupied yet.
When I arrived the nurse asked me how I would like to be addressed, so after that I was consistently ma’am-ed all the time. Very nice!
Within an hour it was my turn to be taken into the operation room. But first I had to completely undress and put on a special shirt for operations. And there I went! It was just like I’d seen it in the movies. You see the ceilings and fluorescent lights passing by above you. There is a nurse at both ends of your bed chit-chatting about the latest gossip. Julia was allowed to accompany us up to the entrance of the operation area, sort of a ‘clean room’ and so she did!
Clean rooms are familiar to me and the operation area was very similar. Head-caps, mouth-caps, special coats… They put one of those head-caps on me as well.
The most unpleasant experience was really the prick with the infusion needle.
Then it went straight into the actual operation room.
It is a pity I needed to cough just when they wheeled me in there, because in these clean rooms they don’t fear dust, like I’m used to, but they fear bacteria…
The anesthesiologist shook my hand and then walked around me to put some stuff into my left arm that put me to sleep within two seconds…
When you come round again, you are in the ‘recovery room’. I had to spend quite some time there, because my data wouldn’t come out of the printer… A printer in a clean room? You wouldn’t see that in the semiconductor industry! Solvents in the ink, dust from the paper… But a printer does not spread bacteria, that’s true…
Then I was taken back to the ward. All day I felt very safe and completely at ease. All around me plenty of medical personnel was available to act in case of the smallest sign of mishap. Julia came to visit me in the afternoon and my sister and brother-in-law came to visit me in the evening. I had a TV set and a telephone at my disposal. Delightful!
But the night was difficult. Of course I couldn’t sleep. I’d slept almost throughout the day! Of course I couldn’t smoke! Smoking is prohibited throughout the hospital! Of course I had to put out my TV and my bed-side light. You wouldn’t want to disturb the other patients, would you?
So there I was. Wide awake, without any distraction except the misery of the patients around me. The other ladies in my ward had a difficult night as well. And in another ward, across the corridor, things were even worse, I could clearly hear that. All this was not enjoyable.
The next morning I was briefly examined by a doctor and he told me I could go home that day.
Great! I wanted to leave as soon as possible! But it took quite a while before all the red tape had been handled. I had immediately called Julia with the good news, so Julia called the hospital to ask at what time she could come and pick me up. Oops! A little to soon. The department head didn’t even know yet, what the doctor had told me…
So I had to stay a little longer and I witnessed the arrival of the patient who was to occupy the fourth bed in our room. “Yes, you will be in a ladies only ward“, the doctor who took her in said reassuringly. The guy, who had come along with her to bring her to the hospital looked quite suspiciously in my direction. I don’t think he really believed this to be a women’s ward… So be it. If he doesn’t understand it, he will just have to admire it, as we say in Holland.
I was up and away very quickly anyway…
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