Monday, May 13th, 2019…... Randy left about 9:30am or so and headed to
McKenzie River to see about riding the trail. He had read last night on his
mountain bike trail app that this particular trail was rated number 1 in the US
so he was anxious to go check it out. After he left, I went about business
around the house. Just a few errands and I was done. Lydia and I made a trip to
Walmart to see if they had a robe for her to take for after surgery. They
didn’t have much so later, when my sister came over, we went out to dinner, and
she chose Albany so we could stop at Kohl’s and see what they had. We found one
and then we headed over to Elmer’s for a light meal. Once we got home, Penny
left Quincy and went home. Lydia spent a little time packing for the hospital. Randy sent me a few pics from his ride. He
said they were right – this was one of the best trails he has been on!
Tuesday, May 14th, 2019…… Sis came by as I was out walking Rylee and came in
and took Q out for her walk/run. We have to be at her first appointment at
1:00pm (with the anesthesiologist), so we left around 9:30am. We wanted to go check out the hotel (Inn at
Marquam Hill) first because the reservation says check-in is from 2:00-3:00pm
and room type will be picked at check-in.
I wanted to at least go see if I could reserve a king non-smoking room
and come back later. Lydia has a 2:30pm appointment to learn about the
colostomy bag should they put one in. The hotel is just up the hill from the
hospital so I could run over and check in while she is in the doctor’s office. But
when we finally found the place, the owner was out walking his dogs so I was
able to explain our situation and he went ahead and gave us our room. We had
thought this was a regular hotel but it turned out that it was more of a bed
and breakfast, with only 8 rooms. He had my request for a king and he told me
it was ready now so we unloaded our stuff. He said I could finish check-in (he
still needed my credit card info) later. We went ahead and left and headed to
the hospital for the first appointment. That one was down the hill, which we
reached via the tram. The doctor we saw did all of the pre screening to see if
Lydia was able to be put under anesthesia. No issues and we were off, back up
the tram, for the second appointment. This one was at the ostomy center, which
was just one room in the specialty physicians building. Meredith was super and
gave us an idea of what to expect if they attach a colostomy bag after the procedure.
Once we were done with that, we headed back home and, while I headed out and
found a small pizza parlor (Hot Lips) and got a slice and a beer, Lydia started
her prep. This is where it got interesting. Our floor in the inn had to share a
bathroom! So, needless to say, Lydia
dominated it throughout the night! She felt bad because one time she was in
there, she found someone left the window open! Oh, well! She had to use her
special soap and scrub up really good. After that, we settled in and tried to
get some sleep. She had found out earlier today that her check-in time tomorrow
morning was 5:30am. I usually carry a
small battery powered alarm clock in my overnight bag but I had thinned it out
yesterday and I guess I missed it. No worries – I set my cell phone clock alarm
for 4:00am.
Here are
some pics from the house. The place was older but very well taken care of.
Everything was neat and tidy and the rooms and bathroom were very nice. They
have the kitchen for made-to-order breakfasts. They have the living room as
more of a parlor (we didn’t use it) which was very nice. The price was $115.00
plus tax so we will go back there again (but maybe reserve the master bedroom
with its own bathroom!).
Wednesday, May 15th, 2019…... We got up at our designated
4:00am. My sister also gave me a back up text just to make sure we were up. Lydia
took her second scrub shower and got dressed and I got ready and we headed out.
We got checked in with no problem. The staff there sure does a nice job! She must
have seen twenty people prior to being wheeled in for the resection. By the
time she left pre-op it was almost 7:45am. I was told the surgery would last
about 4 hours plus recovery so I should leave the hospital and come back later.
I gave up my nice parking space (no charge for parking at the complex) and
drove around. I wanted to go back to the rv place where I had the fridge work
done last year to see if they had moved out to their new location yet. It is on
the east side, way on the other side of Portland so that took up some time. I
then drove over the bridge into Vancouver WA and explored there a bit. While I
was out touring, I got a promised call from one of the surgical assistants in
the room. She said Lydia went under at 8:10am and was doing well and the dr.
was still doing the procedure laparoscopically and everything looked good. She
would call back later with an update, but I had plenty of time to kill. So, I headed west to Beaverton and Yamhill,
just to kill some time. When I got back, all of the parking in the structure
was full so I valet parked and went to check in at the surgery waiting room. I
sat in there for an hour or so, checking her status number on a monitor in the
room. Not long after that, Dr. Herzig came in and told me the good news. They
got everything cleaned up and reattached with no issues. We had signed a paper
allowing them to use a new apparatus which uses a button instead of squeezing a
stapler to activate the suture staples. These were the ones used to reattach
the colon sections. We were told beforehand that Lydia was a good candidate for
that new procedure and, if she authorized it, she would be one of only 165
people across the country to use that technique. He said that it was way easier
and he will be recommending it to go nationwide now. He also said they got a
good tight seal and good flow with little swelling so he didn’t need to attach
the colostomy bag. That would have been a separate procedure and would have to have
been surgically removed down the road (3-6 months down the road!) so we were
extremely happy not to have one! All that was left now was to get through
recovery and then go up to her room. That took a few hours but they finally got
a room assignment and I was able to be with her as we went up and got settled
in. She looked good but was still worn out and had not yet come off of all of
the drugs and anesthesia. I spent a good amount of time with her but left to
make the 90-mile drive back home, stopping for dinner (Arby’s) on the way home.
I was exhausted but still stayed up and watched 90% of the season finale of
Survivor before I couldn’t stay awake any longer. Rylee was quick to take over
her side of the bed and even used her pillow and was snoring just like her
Grammy in a few minutes!
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