The One About The Laser Op

*he* went for a laser surgery last friday for a recurring pain in his shoulder due to the weekly badminton games he plays. perhaps he did not know it wud turn out to be quite a major op so he said he wud check himself in, go for the 45-min op and take a cab home - all on his own.

but u know, being the worry-wart i am.. i can nv be at ease abt such things. so i dropped by the hospital during lunch that day to see if i can give him a bit of moral support.. just in case he got last minute cold feet! (which turned out - he did!) but as typical as he can be.. he was late for the 2-hour-before-op check-in time and i ended up sitting at the hospital ward waiting for him for 45 minute before i had to head back to office. and i didn't even get to see him!

when he finally reached the hospital, i was oredi back in office and he called to tell me that he reached oredi. i sneakily asked, "so u checked into ward 4131, right? Class A ward ar... shiok.."

he - "How u kno???"

me - "I was there jus now la.. u said you'll be there by 12pm wat.."

he - "Oh! No wonder the nurse told me I had visitors even before i check-in! Sorry sorry.. i was late la!"

and then the phone call ended abruptly as the nurses came to get him ready and wheeled him into the OT.

right after work i headed down to the hospital and sat in his ward waiting for abt 2 hours. i was thinking to my self.. "so much for the 45-min op.. it is now more than 4 hours oredi.."

then at abt 6.30pm.. 2 nurses finally wheeled him back.. i guess it was the effect of the general anaesthesia.. he looked so limp and listless on the stretcher.. it pained me a little to see him look so vulnerable.. i have nv seen him like that before.. tears welled up in my eyes a little la.. u kno, i am such a crybaby!

when he was turned in my direction, he smiled weakly but sincerely at me. i smiled back at him and waited for the nurses to settle him down on his bed. his right shoulder was heavily padded and covered with a shoulder guard that prevents his whole right arm from any movement. i cud only imagine the pain he was in.

when the nurses left, he spoke to me briefly abt the op, abt how the Anaestatist was late for over an hour, hence the delay. but the effects of the anaesthesia had not worn out and so he slurred slightly in his speech. he looked rather terrible so i told him to go to bed. but as he had fasted the whole day for the op, he was too hungry to sleep. i went to get some porridge from the nurses and after feeding him the porridge, he went to sleep like a baby.

i quickly gathered my stuff and headed home for a quick wash up so that i can come back and accompany him for the night. doc had said that he will need to stay one night for observation to prevent inflamation and also to let the wound subside a bit before going home.

when i came back, i bought some more food as i was afraid he wud be hungry when he woke in the middle of the night. i dunno abt others but if i were in a hospital, i wud be pretty afraid to be alone and wud be realli terrified of being in the lonely ward. so i tried to return before he woke up so he won't feel so lonely.

but when i opened the door, his eyes were wide open and darted from the tv to me. he said he woke up once i left the room. :S

and as my intuition told me, he was HUNGRY. so we dug into the early supper (it was only 10pm) and watched Olympics tgt. Throughout the night, he could not sleep as his sleeping postures were restricted and his wound hurt a little. on top of which, he was on the glucose drip and had to pee quite often. i did not sleep much but whatever little bit that i did get, were quality sleep.

he was discharged the next morning and we basically spent the weekend at home, watching more Olympics and changing the ice pads for his wound.

looks like we both belittled the impact of the "minor" op. another weekend gone by without accomplishing the things we had in mind for our ROM preparations.

counting down 3 weekends to our ROM.. how ar.. dunno will have time to finish up everything not.... and wat if his wound does not recover in time?? :(

keep ur fingers crossed for me, wun u?