I headed straight to the hospital at 0900 to check on Grace. Thankfully, she had been moved to a private room and seemed quite relaxed. Her surgery was scheduled for the day, and I decided to stay with her. I had my iPad with me, and it played Abba videos continuously.
While I was at the hospital, I noticed that many pretty nurses were walking around, which was a pleasant change from my male-dominated work environment.
The doctors confirmed that they would take Grace to the operating theatre at around 1600.
In the Netherlands, it’s standard practice to confirm the patient’s name and date of birth before entering the operating theatre. However, given Grace’s condition, I had to do it on her behalf. So I went with her to the huge room that could hold over 30 beds. It seemed like a holding area for patients going into or coming out of surgery, except that Grace was the only one there. The nurses were kind and helpful, explaining everything to us. We waited for about an hour, and then they told us that they had to move Grace back to the ward. Emergency operations had come up, and it was the end of the day, so it was expected. It was like taking an evening flight instead of a morning flight, where you feel the impact of all the delays during the day. Though reluctant, I agreed that Grace should go back to the ward because I didn’t want her to experience the uncertainty of going up and down multiple times.
Back in the ward, I was exhausted, and Grace hadn’t eaten all day, so she was tired too. The nurse said that the operation could still go ahead that night, but I had been told otherwise. Grace’s mother arrived, and though the kids were angry with me (which is another story), she wasn’t talking to me. I left to get something to eat, and when I returned, she had left. I went to the living room on the ward and used Duolingo on my phone to pass the time. Around 2045, I told the nurse that I was going home, but she asked me to stay until 2100. At 2055, she informed me that they were taking Grace down for surgery, and this time it was happening.
The surgeon who would operate on Grace came to see us in the holding area and explained everything. Another doctor, possibly a consultant, showed me an x-ray of another patient’s hip to demonstrate what Grace’s hip would look like after the surgery. I tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but the doctor reminded me that it wasn’t the time for humour, and he was right. I answered all the questions on Grace’s behalf and then left the room.
Around 2215-2230, Grace appeared upstairs, awake, and doing well. She was a bit out of it from the anaesthesia, but that was to be expected. I fed her a cheese sandwich, and finally, I got home just after midnight. The surgery had gone well, and Grace was on the road to recovery.
