One Day At A Time
"Do you want me to call your Grandmother?" Helen asked.
"No, she has a charity function on the East coast this weekend, don't bother her. You heard Dr. Corday, this won't be a big deal." John replied.
"Well, I'm going to head home for a bit, and clean up. I'll be back later. You want anything?" Helen asked.
"Yeah, to go home."
"That's not an option...anything else?"
"A Mountain Dew and a pizza."
"Also, not an option." Helen replied.
"Well, then, no I guess I don't need anything." John said.
Helen reached over and gave him a hug and a kiss on the forehead, "I'll be back. You be good."
"I will."
Helen shot him a reproachful look.
"Really, I will." John grinned back at her, "I'll see you later."
**********
The hot shower and the couch were just too good to pass up. Helen got out of the shower, and the couch beckoned to her. A post-it note on top of the remote control got her attention.
"Aunt Helen, I hope everything is okay with John. I had some personal things to attend to, so tell him I said hi, and I'll see you tomorrow. Love Stephanie."
Okay, so she won't have to wait up for Stephanie. Helen flicked through a number of channels and finally settled for an A & E Biography on the Kennedy's, not much else was on. You would think with a gazillion channels. She sat there, eyes growing heavy. She glanced at the clock once, and thought, "One more hour, and then I'll go back in." The hour turned into two, and Helen was fast asleep on the couch, never getting up to set her alarm as she had intended.
************
The nurse came in with the Valium and a sip of water around 6:00 a.m. Apparently, Dr. Corday wanted him plenty calm for this. He felt pretty calm before the Valium, but he didn't want to seem difficult, so he took it.
His eyelids were feeling heavy as Elizabeth explained again what was going to happen. He took the consent form, and read it over...."laparoscopic resection of adrenal cyst/tumor, possible open laparotomy, possible removal of kidney, possible...this...possible that..."
"I thought you said this was a simple procedure." John said holding the pen in mid-air.
"It is, this is just so if we run into any complications, we have your consent to treat you as we see fit. You know the drill." Elizabeth replied.
He scooted over onto the gurney that would take him to the operating room, trying to keep his mind focused on anything other than the fact that he was going to have surgery. It was much different on the receiving end...much different. He had a whole new outlook when he treated surgical patients these days, it wasn't just "another procedure" it was their body...his body...and he wanted to keep it intact.
They rolled down the hall at a pretty good clip, actually, the pace at which the transporter moved was dizzying. He felt nauseous again...was it his nerves...or was he really feeling sick. He wanted a pizza...where did that come from? He was sick to his stomach and thinking of pizza....at least it was focusing on something else...okay, think about ordering a pizza...sausage, pepperoni, onions, no not onions that didn't sound too good right now, lots of cheese...his eyes were getting heavier, valium good stuff.....
He heard a succession of doors opening and closing, then the temperature got noticeably cooler.
"Okay, now let's move over one more time." A voice said to him.
He moved the best he could, although, his limbs did not seem to want to cooperate. He apologized several times for not being able to complete the task at hand.
"Elizabeth how much pre-med did you give him?"
"The usual Robert, and a bit of Versed on the way down."
"He looks pretty gorked."
"He's fine." John answered them.
"See?" Elizabeth countered.
"Okay, Dr. Carter, I'm going to put the mask on your face and I want you to count backwards from 10...ready?" The anesthesiologist asked as he held up the mask for John to see. Other hands were applying electrodes to his chest and painting him with Betadyne.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
The mask was slowly lowered over his nose and mouth..it smelled bad...he wondered for a split second what they used to sterilize these with...that was his last conscious thought as he groggily said..."20..14...uh..." and that was it.
"Okay, what's the BP?" Romano asked.
"130/80, holding steady...pulse 70..respirations 12."
"Good, good."
**************
Helen glanced up at the clock...7:45...7:45...her mind raced..."Oh no!!"
She practically ran for the phone to call...hopefully they were running late as usual...after several rings, the phone was answered. He was already in surgery. "Damn." She muttered as she hung up.
She took a quick shower and dressed. She was gone within 20 minutes, hoping she'd be there when he got into the recovery room. It was a laparoscopic surgery, shouldn't take more than 45 minutes to an hour. She should make it.
**************
"Boy we have a lot of adhesions in here." Romano said as he visualized the kidney and the surrounding tissues through the port site.
"I can't even visualize the tumor, can you Robert?" Elizabeth asked.
"No, can't see a thing, maybe we should just convert this now."
"No, I practically promised him I could do this laparoscopically...it may take a while, but we can do an adhesiolysis and reach the tumor that way."
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep Lizzie, you know better than that." Romano sometimes just couldn't help himself.
They continued clearing the area of the adhesions and scar tissue from the previous procedures, working meticulously and silently, Romano every once in a while looking over at Elizabeth, his look said it all, "It would be so much easier just to open him up." Elizabeth didn't care what he thought, it he couldn't spare the time, she'd do it herself then.
"BP is up a bit Dr. Corday, 140/90, pulse of 84, respiratory rate steady."
"Okay, no problem, we're almost there. There it is!"
"Yeah, that's great, Lizzie, it's also wrapped around the renal artery."
"Don't be such a pessimist Robert, we'll just dissect down to the artery, and remove it in small increments."
"Whatever you say, he's your patient, I'm just saying this makes for an interesting dilemma."
"BP is rising Dr. Corday, 150/110, pulse is tachy at 150."
"Okay, increase the Diltiazem by 5 micrograms per kilo."
"Careful there Lizzie, do you see that?"
"Yes, Robert, I can see. Damn."
"Dr.Corday, blood pressure still up, 154/112, heart rate tachy at 160."
"You need to get out of there Elizabeth."
"Give him a bolus of Labetolol start with 20 mg. give me a BP."
The drug was infused...they waited a tense few minutes.... "BP 160/112, heart rate still 160."
"Okay...give another 10 mg of Labetolol IV push, add 1 mg of Propranolol IV push."
"I need some suction here, where the hell is all of this blood coming from?"
"Blood pressure 180/140, heart rate 178."
The alarms were steadily sounding...
"Dr. Corday, blood pressure rising...." The anesthesiologist started.
"Can someone please turn that damned alarm off!" Elizabeth asked.
"Elizabeth we need to get out ...oh damnit!"
Part 13
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