Sunday, June 11, 2006

Notes on surgery, Part II

I looked over at Pastor Gleason. "It's time to eat." We walked to the elevator to go down one floor to the cafeteria. If I would have known how familiar I would become with this place over the next 48 hours, I would have driven straight to the nearest restaurant. (But, then again, I would have lost my God-given parking space.)

When I got back up to the waiting room, I found all of my family. Keep in mind, this was a Thursday morning. These people all got off work for us.

The longest three hours of my life were spent in the second floor waiting room waiting for Dr. Morgan's report. I tried to pass time reading a book, talking with family members, and going for a few walks. It wasn't working very well. At 4:00, I closed my book and was about to go to the nurse's station to see if I could get some information. When I got up, I saw the burly surgeon coming down the hall.

I wish I could recall the conversation we had, but I do remember that he said that Anne-Marie's lymph nodes were negative. (I hope, for your own sakes, that most of you don't know enough about cancer to understand what this means. Cancer can spread throughout your body through its drainage system: the lymph nodes. If lymph nodes are examined and tested during surgery, and the results are negative, it means that it will be much easier to stop the cancer permanently.) He said that everything went well and that Dr. Burgess would finish the procedure during the next hour.

Dr. Morgan was a little optimistic. Dr. Burgess found us in the waiting room and let us know that Anne-Marie was in the recovery room and doing fine. She would be upstairs in her permanent room in an hour.

An hour later I went upstairs to see my wife.

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