The Port

My husband's surgery to insert his port was set for 9:00 am, Tuesday March 20th. The drive in was pretty treacherous with heavy rain, wind and high water. It was one of those days one would prefer to stay home & watch the storm from inside your cozy, warm.....SAFE house. But we aren't at home, so we make the best of a unpleasant situation.
We arrived at Methodist West, you guessed it, 45 minutes early. I've never been to this hospital before, much less paid attention to it, but now that I have, I think the landscaping and outside of hospital is gorgeous, I'm betting the inside will be too. I think it's pretty new, maybe was built about 15 months ago.
We walked in the front entrance, into a beautiful atrium style lobby, with a large water fountain, trees, statues and a piano playing. Right off of the lobby is a small, welcoming chapel......a perfect, quiet place to pray, meditate, or just sit.
Which is what I did while LD was checking in/registering. I sat and prayed.....I need to do that more often.
L finished checking in, then we went down to the waiting area for radiology. Not sure whyI we were sent to radiology just that the surgery was in their Operating Room. We were called back about 8:45 by a really nice nurse name Maria. Hubs was the only patient in the pre-op room, quite a bit different from MD Anderson the other day. Trust me....I am not complaining at all, it was quite nice and very quiet!! It's not like it is early, I'm guessing it's because it's a new hospital. No signs that said I couldn't use my cell phone either. Gotta love that!
Maria got busy getting L prepared. He won't be put under this time, just a light sleep. The surgical doctor's assistant, Adam Gonzales, came in to meet us and shortly the surgeon, Dr Jerry Polasek came in. Holy cow!!! I think that both of these guys are out of their 1st period class this morning with a hall pass. I don't think they could possibly be older than Jr. High students! Geez....these doctors are getting younger all the time! Hope they know there stuff!
Well it's time for L to go, Dr. Polasek told me he would come talk to me after the surgery was finished. Maria took me around the corner into the next hallway to a waiting room. She asked if I would like anything to drink or snack on and said that if I got cold, I could grab a blanket out of the warmer. Snacks, drinks, warm blanket, how awesome is this place?? I watched a little tv and almost fell asleep in the comfy chair.
About an hour later, Dr. Polasek came to the waiting room to let me know how the surgery went. He said they got the port in easily, everything went well, they just had to wake my husband up every once in awhile because he was snoring. That is definitely him!!! Lol.....Oh thank goodness!!! No problems at all! The other doctor and nurses would be taking L to recovery very soon, then Maria would come get me.
In recovery we will have to go through the same routine as last time except not the breathing exercises since he wasn't on anesthesia or oxygen. He ate lunch (have you ever heard of lunch being served in post op? Not me!) and was ready to go by 1:00pm.
Outside had turned out to be a beautiful day. I got the truck, while Maria wheeled LD to the front door for me to pick up.....and away we go!!