After Hubby got out of surgery, he was in recovery for over two hours. He was in considerable pain and they were giving him pain meds for it, which meant they didn't want him to eat because of the likelihood of throwing up. While I understood this intellectually, it was freaking me out that he was approaching 48 hours of no food. I really didn't appreciate the fact that doctors and nurses kept saying, "he won't starve to death." I'm very food and hunger conscious and I can only imagine what would happen if this was me with the low blood sugar. Also, since I wanted to be able to eat the pizza with him, I hadn't had anything but a protein shake and a carrot all day.
Basically I was going bug-fuck and on the verge of turning into "Patient's Wife From Hell."
At around 415PM, he called and told me he was back in his room and to get the pizza. I had a shit-load of stuff I was bringing up including his lap-top on the theory that we might be able to watch movies together. So now I've got two heavy bags, which I schlep to the pizza place, where the computers are down, so they're having trouble taking orders and the ATM machine is not working. I go to the ATM machine, down the block at Muddy Waters, get money, get pizza, and then with two heavy bags and pizza, go out on Valencia to try and get a cab. YES, MY LIFE IS A FUCKING SIT-COM!
Got the cab...got up there with the pizza and turned into MOMMY KARAOKEGAL, making hubby eat tiny bits and chew them very carefully, because after 48 hours of NO FOOD, plus surgery and lots of pain meds, we didn't want any incidents. The pizza was awesome and I'd also brought up some strawberries which he appreciated.
Then the next bit of aggravation unfolded, which was the noisy neighbors. Matt's roommate was being visited by three loud children and two adults and they had their tv set on really high and the guy was also making calls and talking loudly in Tagalog. (This is not an anti-Filipino thing. He could have been talking loudly in Urdu and it still would have driven me nuts.) Since I was not getting regular doses of Dilaudid, I had no patience and I was approaching head-explosion, ready to kill someone levels of anger. Hubby knows me and send me out on a semi-bullshit errand to get me away from the situation. By the time I got back the visitors were gone and things were a little more peaceful, however the loud tv/loud phone call situation continued. I mentioned it to the nurse when I left, but I doubt it's going to make any difference. There is a headset jack in the tv set, so at least hubby can plug that in. We decided having the laptop up at the hospital isn't a great idea either, so I took that home. He's got his cell-phone, which has internet access and his Ipod and some books and the Dilaudid, which sort keeps him floating in and out.
I'm back at work, because I assume the next few days are just going to be about tedium, which sucks, but there's not much to be accomplished by my sitting there.
Thanks again to everyone who's sent me comments, private messages, email and has chatted. Even if you've just sent positive thoughts, I really appreciate it.
Some questions, in case anyone's interested.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?
Hubby is a nurse at detox and he worked a 12 hour shift on Monday night. Then he went to see his sister. He was very tired (and angry) and wanted to get home and get some sleep because he was taking a CPR class that night for his re-certification. He tried to make a light and he couldn't make it and when he hit the brake, it locked up and he went down. Hard. In the middle of a five way intersection. He is generally not a stupid driver or a stupid person, but this was sort of a stupid thing to have happen. The tow-truck driver who helped me get the bike home, says his brake fluid was low, but I'm not sure that affected it or not.
HOW BAD ARE THE INJURIES?
Well the situation is not as serious as the near-death experience of 2001. As I told hubby, there's no tubes in your throat or your dick, so life is good. On the other hand, he does have a Tibial Plateau Fracture
which can be very serious, and requires the extra surgery they did of putting a "platform" on the leg so that things can settle before they actually try to repair it.
He also cracked some ribs and his shoulder hurts, although the x-rays aren't showing any shoulder fractures.
As some of you may remember, this is the 2nd bone breakage in a two year period. We're about a year shy of last year's, Skateboard Incident . Obviously, he gets more sympathy this time and it is much more serious, although that one has had ramifications for his musicianship as he has never gotten full range of motion back in his wrist. He can still play mandolin, guitar, banjo and ukulele, but had to give up his attempts to learn fiddle.