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The Procedure Melissa had a procedure yesterday at the hospital to see if she has an ulcer. She left the children with babysitters and rode in with Pam from church. Dan was at work nearby and wasn’t sure when he’d finish up, but he was there with her when I arrived. We went up to the day surgery floor and the staff recognized Melissa from her gall bladder surgery. So, with that Melissa began to feel right at home and chatty. Don’t ask me why but this song came to mind… Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo - Cheers Lyrics Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. The doctor came in and greeted us all with a twinkle in his eye. He sounded very familiar. “I love your accent,” Melissa said without hesitation. “What country are you from?” “Great Britain.” Then it came to me, he sounds like Nanny 911 on TV. He explained the procedure while Melissa was having her vitals taken and an IV put in. It was quite a lively exchange between her, the nurse (who talked of her gall bladder surgery and C sections) and the doctor. Melissa was having a ball. “You know,” the doctor began with teasing gleam in his eyes, “when I do this in Great Britian, 60% of the patients refuse to be sedated.” I sensed a little friendly “you squeamish Americans” in his tone. Melissa lifted right off the bed. “You mean you can do this without sedation? Can I? No one told me it was an option, but if it is I want to try it.” He was taken aback a little. “Are you sure?” “Yes, I’m very sure. I can tolerate a lot of pain and I’ve heard about the side effects and I don’t want the side effects.” “Well, then. You’ll be my first one here to do it without sedation. We’ll have you prepped in case you change your mind in there.” Melissa was more concerned about the sedation part of the process during her days of waiting for this than she had been the procedure itself, so this was an answer to her prayers. She was quite relieved and verbalizing all the benefits she would enjoy of not being put to sleep. Soon they were wheeling her out of the room for the 10-15 minutes it would take to scope her stomach area. Dan and I were sitting in the empty room listening to her chatting away as she headed down the hall. I looked at Dan. “The one drawback to no sedation is that Melissa will be awake to realize that she can’t talk. That might be frustrating for her,” I teased. We both grinned. Within a half hour we could hear her coming down the hall, and knew right away that she had made it through without any help because she was chatting away with the nurse. They gave her something to numb the back of her throat and it was a bit of a challenge to have the scope make the curve there as it went in, but the rest of it was fine and she was thrilled that she could walk right out of the hospital as soon as they were done. “You should tell everyone that they don’t need sedation,” she kept encouraging the doctor and his staff. She left with lots to talk about because she watched the whole thing on TV and even has pictures. This is the same daughter who really IS squeamish at the site of blood and other medical procedures. She does not have an ulcer. There are some irritations in there that she is going to try and heal if she can find a remedy. She’ll be pursuing that next week. Around 7:30, Bob, Crysten and I picked up Annelene for our last fling with her before she moved to Washington DC on Tuesday. She has a summer internship there with a non-profit with the potential for a full time position in the fall. We are going to miss our South African connection. We wish her well. |
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