A Long Story-Part 2

The oncologist came in to examine my mother after what seemed liked hours of waiting. It didn’t take her long to tell us that my mother’s symptoms had not come on like cancer. Her examination did not reveal anything that looked like cancer and her assessment was that my mother probably did not have cancer. Sweet assurance. She went on to explain that the oncology team would be “on-call” during my mother’s surgery the next day, but that they would only come in if cancer was spotted after surgery had begun.

Thursday morning came quickly. I had not spent Wednesday night at the hospital, but at a friends’ house with Adam & Olivia. A frantic call from my mother awakened me on Thursday morning. They were coming to get her and she did not want to go down to surgery alone. Luckily, out of breath, unshowered and sweaty, I made it to her room before they took her to pre-op. Her nerves had gotten the best of her and she was back to asking me if I thought that she had cancer. I confidently told her “no!”

A very kind nurse came in to explain that she would be by my mother’s side during the entire surgery. She would call me from the operating room when the surgery had started and then several times throughout the procedure. She said that I could expect the surgery to last between 2 and 3 hours and that she would be in recovery for about 2 hours afterwards. The surgery would begin around 1 p.m. and she would be back in her assigned room (this time in the women’s center) by 5 or 6 p.m.

At 12:45 p.m. I gave her a quick hug and the nurses rolled the bed out of the pre-op area. I was directed to the waiting area where I found my grandfather and his wife waiting. We decided to go to the hospital cafeteria to eat. The cafeteria at Baylor is in the basement so cell phone reception is not very clear. Around 1:45 p.m., as my grandparents and I were walking back to the waiting room, I realized that I had already missed a call. I was certain that it was just the nurse telling me that the surgery had begun. It was, but she said that the oncology team had already been called to the operating room. Funny thing… it still didn’t hit me that she had cancer. My world was still okay.

To Be Continued...

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Things here remain stable. They are moving my mom to some type of hospice care and today we are trying to make decisions. So many decisions...