One Day At A Time




"Okay, now we're going to move you on your side for one more shot." The technician said.

John had already grown weary of all this move this way, move that way, hold still, breathe, don't breathe stuff...how many pictures did they need?

"Okay, got it!" Came the voice again. "All done!"

"It's about damned time." John muttered under his breath.

He was so tired. He didn't remember ever having been this physically tired in his life, all he wanted to do was to go to sleep and be left alone.

Helen pushed him back to his room in silence. He didn't seem to want conversation, and she knew by now, to just let him be. She had her days too, and he too, understood that.

Helen helped him back to bed, and he was asleep within minutes, snoring loudly. Helen took the opportunity to catch a few z's herself, leaning back into the chair, and propping her feet up onto the side of the bed. It had been a long night, a longer morning, and it didn't look to end any time soon. She took the opportunity to rest.

******************

"It's in a rather good place actually Robert." Elizabeth Corday looked at the films and pointed out the tumor.

"I don't like the proximity to the renal artery, but we won't really know until we get in there." Romano hesitated, "think laparoscopically or an open?"

"We could start with it laparoscopically and convert to an open procedure if necessary." Corday replied, "That way, maybe we can minimize scarring."

"I don't know what difference that would make, the adhesions from his previous surgeries are going to be a bitch to work around as it is." Romano stated.

"Good point...but knowing Carter, he'll be much more apt to agree to a laparoscopic procedure than a straight open, knowing of course, that if necessary, it would have to be converted." Elizabeth explained.

"You know one thing I never did understand Lizzie, is why everyone in the ER is so partial to this guy? What does he have that I don't?"

"A heart Robert." Elizabeth stated simply tapping on her colleagues chest.

"I have a heart!" Romano argued, "I just don't wear it on my sleeve!"

Elizabeth walked away carrying the MRI images, mumbling something that Robert couldn't catch, under her breath.

"I'll go talk to him." Romano said.

"I think it would be better coming from me, actually Robert."

"It's that heart thing right?"

"That would be it." Elizabeth said, "Why don't you get the OR ready, and I'll go discuss this with Carter."

"Will do Lizzie, don't need a heart for that." Robert was not going to let this one go.

***********************

A knock on the door awoke Helen in an instant. Elizabeth Corday was putting the images up in the light box for John to see. Helen saw what the problem was immediately.

Elizabeth felt eyes upon her, and looked over to see Helen had awoke.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Nussbaum, did you get some rest?"

"Yes, good night, I was asleep for four hours!" Helen looked up at the clock in amazement.

"You must have needed it. How long has he been asleep?" She asked pointing over at a sleeping Carter.

"Just as long, he was worn out." Helen answered.

"I'd like to go over his test results, shall I wake him or would you prefer to?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'll do it." Helen leaned over the side of the bed, and shook John gently on the shoulder. "John...John....Dr. Corday is here. She has your test results."

John looked at Helen bleary eyed. He quickly looked around the room, satisfied of where he was, still confused of why he was here...oh yeah...I was sick....okay...now fully awake..."Hi Dr. Corday."

"Hi yourself. Want to go over this?" Dr. Corday pointed to the obvious tumor on the adrenal gland just above the right kidney.

"Well, that was easy to find." John commented.

"Very, Robert is a little worried about the proximity to the renal artery, but I believe we can take care of this laparoscopically, and if we run into any problems, you realize that we would have to convert to an open procedure. We are just taking the tumor, none of the gland itself, again, of course, it there is a problem, you may lose part of the adrenal gland, but I do not foresee that happening. Now, you will most likely have adhesions around the surgical site, so, Helen, if you or other family members are waiting, it may take longer due to the fact that we would have to lyse the adhesions before removing the tumor, so don't be alarmed if a long period of time has gone by with no word. It's a very tedious process, but if we are able to do this laparoscopically, all the better, healing time is much less for this, as well as, scarring. You will have maybe three or four band-aids, from the port sites, as opposed to a flank full of stitches or staples. Healing time is a few days as opposed to weeks from an open incision. Do you have any questions John?"

"And this will make all the problems I've been having go away?" He asked.

"Absolutely."

"Okay, when do we do this?"

"Tomorrow morning soon enough?"

"Sure, sounds good to me." John replied.

"All right then, I want to make sure we keep your BP under control, so you'll be back on the IV meds until surgery. We don't want to take any chances." Elizabeth explained.

"My blood pressure's been good all day."

"You've been asleep John, besides, you may be stressed thinking about this in the evening, and I really don't want to have any problems, which, by the way, I do not foresee, preventing you from having this worrisome tumor removed in the morning." Elizabeth presented a convincing case.

"Ok." John agreed.

"All right then, all settled, I'll see you at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning."

"It's a date." John said agreeably.

Elizabeth left his room, feeling quite confident that her vast experience and ability at laparoscopic procedures, would be put to good use tomorrow.



Part 12
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