Waiting patiently

Surgery was today. Granny was finally scheduled for surgery, after breaking her hip/leg on Monday. She's been in the hospital since about noon on Monday. No treatments, just pain management all day Monday and Tuesday. Finally today they decided she was well enough for the surgery. She was scheduled for noon surgery. she was taken to pre-op about noon, and into surgery at 1pm. We were told it would be about 45 minutes for surgery, then a couple hours in recovery before returning to her room. 

About 2:30 the surgeons came to tell us that she had successfully made it through surgery. They had successfully reattached the ball on her femur with a metal plate and 3 screws. The recovery room would page us when she was ready for a visitor. According to the doctors it should be within the hour. 

At 5 minutes before 4, the clerk in the recovery room turned off the lights and left. My sister checked her watch and noted that the she, the clerk, had skipped out a little early. She was the woman who had given us the pager, and we wondered amongst ourselves who we would turn the pager into when we were paged. Then we continued to wait. Law and Order came on the tv and we settled into the story line. 

At the first commercial break we commented that it was surprising we hadn't heard. By 4:15 the anxiety was starting to rise, wondering why she wasn't ready for visitors yet. At 4:30 the question in my mind was whether something had gone wrong in recovery. At 4:45 my aunt was curled in a ball on a recliner, commenting that she wasn't sure she wanted to know what was going on. My sister said she was going to go to the recovery room at 5, if they hadn't come out. My mother questioned whether everyone had gone home and left Granny there by herself. I grabbed the pager and headed down the hall to recovery.

When I went through the doors marked "Do Not Enter" I saw a small desk, surrounded by about a dozen beds each enclosed with a curtain. No one was at the desk no visible bed was occupied. I walked around each corner looking behind curtains, finding each bed vacated. Not a soul was in the ward.

I walked back to the waiting room and told them what I had found. We grabbed our belongings, dropped the pager at the locked up clerk's window and headed for the elevator hoping that she was returned to her room. Each harboring a small fear that she might not be there. 

We took the elevator to the third floor, found her room and there she slept. Soundly in her room. Tiny Granny, 4 feet 10 inches and 90 pounds barely made a mound on the bed. Her eyes were closed peacefully and her mouth hung open, oblivious to the ruckus her disappearance had caused. Sleep peacefully tonight Granny.