Wedding Rings and Waiting Rooms

Good things come to those who wait!

Monday.  The day we had been looking forward to while simultaneously dreading.  We had skated through the weekend on borrowed time, free from chemo and oral surgery, but Monday brought an end to that.  Our team of doctors woke us up just before 8 AM when they came for their morning rounds.  They informed us that Willie was on the waiting list for oral surgery and would be going in for surgery sometime that day.  They had no idea when that would be and instructed us to sit tight and be patient while understanding that the oral surgeon was generously adding us in on top of his already packed schedule.  No rush for us.  We are getting pretty good at waiting! 
Willie was fasting for the surgery so we skipped breakfast and tried to divert his mind to things other than his growling stomach.  Around 10 AM his parents and Uncle came to visit.  They had been there about 10 minutes when our nurse came in and told us that Willie had just been scheduled to go into surgery at noon.  We were so happy!  It's strange to note the things that make us happy now...
She told us to plan on leaving for the surgery center in about an hour when a transport man would come to get him and wheel him over.  She had just left the room when there was a knock on the door.  Behind it stood a short, perfectly bronzed, Hispanic man with a dazzling white smile.  He announced he was here to take Willie to surgery.  We were all confused at the rush in the timing.  The nurse, who had not made it far down the hall, came back in and said to forget noon, we were going NOW!
This seems to be a trend around this hospital to have a patient wait for hours on end only to rush them into doing something at the last minute.  We weren't going to complain though, we needed this opening.  The smiling transporter turned Will's bed into a version of a giant wheelchair and we set off down the hall.  I swear this guy was the happiest man in the world.  He smiled from ear to ear as he maneuvered the bed around tight corners and dodged barriers in the hallway.  Driving like this told me he must be an expert.
"How long have you been doing this?" I asked, after he made an impressive 3 point turn to get the bed in the elevator.
"10 years he said," his smile never ceasing "I love my job!"
That was no secret.  I asked him how much the bed weighs and he gave me an entire history of the various hospital beds he had encountered over the 10 years he had worked there.  The current bed it most impressive to him because, although it weighs 800 lbs, it is motorized so he can make fancy turns with just the use of one hand.  He demonstrated this for me by moving the bed in a snake like pattern.  He was too good to be true.  I wanted to watch him push beds all day.  It was like watching a world class race car driver practice his craft.  He finished our ride with a dramatic arch turn followed back a reverse back into a holding room.  I wanted to clap and ask for an encore, but he disappeared.
We were now in a log hallway of 10 foot compartments that opened outward.  Each compartment held a hospital bed with a patient nervously awaiting their turn.  There must have been 20 compartments and each one was filled.  It was an eery sight.
The nurses checked Willie in and told us it would be about a half hour wait.  A half hour came and went with no sign of the nurses.  An hour later they came to inform us that it would be another half hour.  The tall surgeon from the previous day came by our compartment and asked to speak to me down the hall.  I followed him past several compartments, trying not to look in them as I passed, but failing desperately as my eye caught the different scenes in each room: a mom with her young son, a grandpa with his adult children, a pregnant woman with her worried husband, and a woman all alone talking on a cell phone.  This last room disturbed me the most.  I caught the end of her conversation as she told the person on the other line that she would hopefully see them after surgery....hopefully?!
It breaks my heart to see anyone suffer a health trial alone. 
The surgeon took me into a corner with a computer with Will's x-rays pulled up on the screen.  He pointed to the broken teeth with his long slender fingers and explained that he would most likely be extracting all the wisdom teeth and the infected molar.  I asked some questions about the type of anesthesia and he assured me that Will  would feel no pain, he also said the surgery would be easy and probably only last 15 minutes.  We returned to our cubicle and he asked me to explain to Will what I had seen, then scampered away.  I've never dealt with any medical professional like this before.  It seems his entire goal is to spend as little time as possible with us! 
I told Will this must mean he's a great surgeon if he is too busy to spend time talking with people!
The half hour of wait time came and went and this time we were assured it would only be another half and hour more.  When that came and went they explained that there had been an emergency in the operating room and we were waiting for the room.  It didn't bother us, we were in no hurry.  When they finally came to get Will it was 2PM and we had been waiting 2 and a half hours.  I was hungry and asked if there was a cafe in the building.  The nurse directed me to it then handed me a $5 gift certificate for our patience in waiting.  I felt like I had won an award.  We should have been thanking them for fitting us in!
I crossed the doors into the surgery waiting room and it was like I had walked into the lobby of a 5 star hotel.  The furniture and fixtures were in fine taste and the contemporary colors were calming to the eye.  In one corner, a baby grand piano was playing.  As I walked deeper into the room, a woman in a red Stanford jacket approached me.  The red stanford jacket is worn by volunteers around the hospital who are always helpful and overly excited to serve us.  The woman in this red jacket offered me a drink and directed me to a snack bar.  Had I crossed into heaven?  The scene was simply too serene.
I had about an hour to wait since they would need to have Will fully out of the anesthesia until they released him.  I went to the cafe and wandered around the library that was attached.  There was an entire section of books that were written by cancer survivors or families of people who were treated at Stanford.  I can't help but think that one day Will's story will be among them.  I flipped through a few books and scanned some pages.  Each excerpt contained medical phrases and listed medications that would have been foreign to me only a week ago, but now I know those words all too well.  Their stories were filled with years of treatments and death bed accounts. I felt a sadness brewing inside as I read their stories.  I had to shut the book.  I didn't want to know.
I went back upstairs to the heavenly waiting room and pulled out my iphone.  There were about 20 people spread out in the room, eagerly awaiting news on their loved ones.  I noted that every person in the room was either on an ipad, iphone, or laptop.  What a strange society we have become!  I looked down at my iphone and smiled in realization that just three weeks ago, when I was still using a flip phone, I would not have been worthy to sit among this crowd.  Now that I have an iphone I am in the Stanford social class!
I searched the Internet while I waited, but couldn't deny the anxiety that was rising in me as the minutes passed.  This was taking far too long.  He had been gone for an hour and a half. 
I sat there, staring at his wedding ring on my finger. It didn't belong there on my hand.  Its presence made me uncomfortable. 


They had removed the ring before he went into sugery and handed it to me."He can't wear it in there?" I asked in surprise.
There was a head shake indicating no.
"Well don't think this makes you single." I joked to Willie.  The nurse joked back about him being the hot single ticket in the surgery room.  We laughed.  That put us one laugh closer to our cancer beating number of 4 a day.
I was just about to explode from anticipation when the red jacket girl showed up to tell me Willie was on his way back to the room and the surgery went well.
HOORAY!
I wanted to jump up and down and run around the room slapping high fives to all the technological junkies.
Instead, I gathered my things and practically ran back to our room.  Will wasn't there yet.  He finally showed up about 10 minutes later, looking a walrus with gauze tusks coming out of his mouth.  The surgeon had removed all 5 teeth and done a beautiful job.  Willie had been conscious the whole time, but didn't experience much pain.  He hadn't eaten anything all day and was starving so we removed the gauze and he had some pudding and applesauce.  Things looked really good.
At 7 PM the nurses change out.  We got a new nurse that night named Letty.  She was a woman in her 50's that was meant hand picked for us, it seemed.  She had a great sense of humor and spent a few moments chatting with us.  We learned that she had been a dental assistant for 10 years and knew exactly what to do for Will's teeth.  What an incredible blessing she was!  She created a regime for him to swish his mouth out during the night and gave him a small dose of pain medication.  We were relieved to have a nurse that would know what to do if something happened with his incisions during the night.  When she left, we marveled at how amazing it has been that the rotating nurses we have had each night have all known exactly what we need and been able to offer their special skill at the time we need it.  I consider that a miracle.  And I know it's only one of many to come!