Vernon went in to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital today for surgery on his arm. Some months ago, you may remember, a dialysis fistula was embedded in his left arm. It didn’t heal properly, so he needed to have one of the veins transposed (in this case, lifted closer to the surface so that it can be accessed with a needle.) Though Vernon’s chest catheter was just replaced on Saturday, the arm fistula is considered a safer long-term access for dialysis. I’d put off this surgery a couple months ago as it was slated the same week of two other surgeries he had just undergone at another hospital. Oddly, the story seemed to repeat itself this week, but another appointment wasn’t available till March. (Emergency surgery is SO much more efficient than the planned-in-advance ones.)

It was a very long day. I got to the hospital a little before 1:30, where I expected to meet up with Vernon, who was supposed to be brought over by ambulance from the dialysis center. But it was a longer day for Vernon, who had been picked up at 10am to start his adventures. Somehow there was a miscommunication and Vernon ended up in the ER.  It wasn’t a good start, not being able to locate him for an hour and knowing he’d been dropped off. But eventually we found him and got him transferred to the pre-op area by 3:30, an hour before his surgery was to begin. It wasn’t conducive to good feelings. I know we have been spoiled at other hospitals, but I was disappointed by how chaotic the whole thing felt and at the lack of communication between wards. Part of the problem is that today’s was a surgery organized through a separate group of physicians via the dialysis center.The care home is very good about communicating with me but whenever plans are made or changed through the dialysis center, someone ALWAYS drops the memo. It has absolutely never gone 100% smoothly. But to have Vernon lost in a hospital for over an hour with no one claiming responsibility for him took the cake. On top of that, he wasn’t allowed to have any medicine or drink today, which made him extra anxious.

When I found him, I could tell that he was fearful, not knowing where he was…and also listening to strangers around him who had been wondering allowed what he was doing there didn’t help much. It was pretty awful. “Don’t leave me,” he kept saying. But there was a gift waiting for us, when they were finally able to get in.

Susan, John, and Belle Logie had brought their company and music. We were able to get everyone in the curtained cubicle of the pre-op, in fact, it was so late in the day, there was soon more room for us to spread out in. I told the nurse that Vernon was very uncomfortable and he relaxes to music, so hopefully soft singing and guitar would be allowed in the ward.

This calmed Vernon down considerably. And the nurse said he enjoyed it too. Apparently this sort of thing doesn’t happen there…at least not in his experience so far. While we were all relaxing to John and Belle’s music, I found this article on my phone, which makes the case that “listening to music before, during, or after a surgical procedure is beneficial to patients and can significantly reduce pain and anxiety, and decrease the need for pain medication, according to the most comprehensive review of the evidence so far, involving almost 7000 patients.” And it’s non-invasive, to boot!  The article goes on to say that “listening to music at any time seems effective although there is a trend for better outcomes if patients listened to music before surgery rather than during or after.” If this is so, the Logies didn’t know how powerful their visit today would be! We continue to be amazed by their friendship.

In the end, he didn’t go in for surgery till 5:30. Another gift, my friend Melissa, showed up on her journey from San Diego to North LA that she just happened to be taking today. We waited a few hours together. The surgery went on three times longer than I expected and though I had intended to wait till he was done, I needed to get back to the kids. If I didn’t have them, I might still be there now. But I got a call from the nurse, telling me that Vernon woke up from anesthesia and would be transferred back to Mesa Verde soon. I have already asked that dialysis is cancelled for Vernon tomorrow. (We’ll make it up on Thursday if we have to.) The man deserves a morning off after this long, strange day, let alone the long strange weekend.

January 4th is a wrap. Two surgeries down so far this year. Now we can look to better things ahead. Hallelujah!