Hotel Swedish

We have moved back to the waterfront. It has such a calming effect on me. I love watching the lights shimmer in columns across the open expanse like golden paths beckoning me to cross. This morning I awoke to see a glimpse of pink that morphed into sherbet pink and orange softness as the sun rose and highlighted Mt. Rainier in her full majesty. Surely a good omen for the surgery that followed.

7:30 am and I was scrubbing down with Hibiclens and rinsing in the warm shower. Nothing to eat or drink, then off to wait for the removal of a growing lump in my vaginal canal. Darn this cancer! So glad to be able to surgically remove it verses chemotherapy and all the side effects that creep into my life afterwards.

8:00 am I am checking in and a caffeinated woman, obviously in a hurry, approaches the desk for information. I wave her in front of me. She is from Port Townsend and has been up since very early morning. Her sister is scheduled to have her baby "turned intravenously" this morning and they are lost in the big city-could she get directions? Veins and vaginal canals...have we new techniques since I was pregnant? This is just sci-fi!
I arrive at my waiting bed; my name and my Dr's name on a card at the footboard. The bed looks as if there is a skinny child underneath the blankets and the top blanket moves slowly. The nurse turns down the bed to reveal a baffeled air blanket heated with warm air. I snuggle down inside and wait, warm as a bug in a rug.
The waiting is always reveling and interesting. The woman next to me is getting an epidural, and my mind goes to birthing days and my grandchild's eminent birth this March. My port is accessed so that they can give me drugs and saline for hydration during and following the surgery. My mind is flashing photos of the chaos and destruction in Haiti. Hurting children, bleeding men and women, missing limbs-no anesthesia, no warm blankets, dirty environment, scared and hungry. I feel so comfortable and confident that I am in good hands. How lucky am I?
11:00 am Finally I am speaking with the anesthesiologist and asking for less narcotics in the general anesthesia they are giving me so that I am not nauseous coming out of the haze.
1:30 PM I am waking up. Things have gone well and as planned. I will reschedule with the Dr tomorrow, but surgery lasted 1.5 hrs as anticipated, so I assume no complications.

Home feels great and I am hungry. Bonnie came down and brought corn chowder at my request. Funny since I have always told her that corn chowder looks disgusting when you are in recovery since it is looks like barf, but I am NOT naseaus and I am hungry and it tastes great. She is good to me. The tulips she brought the night before are now cascading over like a fountain of beauty. Life is good.