7.14.2010

He finally got a break

Pablo didn't have surgery today and here's what happened...

We get to the hospital at 6 am this morning and just before 7:30am, I gave Pablo a kiss and wished him well with the surgery. This farewell was SOOOO much different than the farewell almost 3 months ago when he was whisked away to brain surgery. That farewell was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.

Anyway, back to this morning... I told Pablo I would see him in a few hours and off he went. I went to the cafeteria to get a giant coffee and some breakfast. Pablo's surgery was supposed to be over by 11:30 so after I ate, I started reading Kitty Kelley's Oprah biography that I borrowed from my sister Kim. At around 10:20 my cell phone rings and it's the hospital's number (which I know REALLY well). I answer it and am shocked to hear Pablo on the other end of the phone.

Pablo says 'they didn't do the surgery' and I was thinking, 'those jerks better not be postponing the damn surgery or I am going to freak out'. Then Pablo tells me that he was put under and woke up in recovery (which is where he was calling me from) and he realized that his mouth and penis weren't hurting him and they must have given him some damn good drugs since he wasn't in pain. He then looked at the clock and realized that it was way earlier than he thought and what the heck was going on. The nurses explained to him that the surgery didn't happen (they didn't say why). Pablo then tells me to go find out what happened so off I went in search of his surgeon.

It's a good thing I know the hospital really well by now and I went straight to his surgeon's secretary's office. Thankfully she was there and I asked if she knew why the surgery didn't happen and here is what she tells me:

They put Pablo under general anaesthetic and the surgeon had a look inside at what he was going to be working on and saw very little scar tissue...so little that he came to the conclusion that it didn't warrant the rather graphic surgery I detailed in my last post. My mouth dropped and I was speechless. I mean, Pablo has peeing issues so there has to be something they can do to fix the problem. The secretary didn't know any more than that it didn't need to happen and she sent me down to the waiting room where I was then directed to the recovery room.

I walk into recovery and there is Pablo wide awake. I walk over to his bed and he starts swearing and is in complete shock over the events that have taken place. I tell him what the secretary told me and he can't believe it. He has already had three surgeries to fix this problem and none have really worked. This was supposed to be the surgery that fixed the problem once and for all. So I pull up a chair and we await the arrival of his surgeon. While we wait, the nurses tell us that Pablo has to stay in recovery for four hours and then he could go home. He got to recovery at around 9:30am therefore they'd let him go at 1:30. His surgeon comes in and explains that he was surprised that the opening all the way down the urethra was a normal size...not closed up enough to need surgery. He said he really can't do anything to fix the fact that Pablo can't pee in a straight line and Pablo's other issue being the slow flow could be a bladder problem and he will see Pablo about that at a later time.

After the shock wore off and all the swearing was done, we realized the outcome was actually a good thing. No surgery, no pain, no catheter, no 5 day hospital stay. Then we realized that Pablo could have started radiation on his brain a month ago...

I took Pablo to lunch once we left the hospital to celebrate. This day really didn't turn out as expected but Pablo FINALLY got a medical break after everything he's been through...

4 comments:

  1. OMG, ((((((Julia+Pablo)))))),

    I wrote you guys a note late last night just before my computer shut down for the nightly scan-defrag. Apparently, the message didn't make it through before the shutdown.

    One of the things that I said was that someone was sitting in a closet somewhere with a hairy doll and a box of pins -- that all this crap has to stop NOW!!

    OMG!! OMG!!

    Well, my word ... today must have been a heck of a lot better than either one of you had pictured it being. :grin:

    I HOPE, I PRAY, I BELIEVE that this will be the start of a total turnaround for you guys ... cures, health, tons of great grandbabies ...

    I want you guys to get the kind of life that you deserve ... healthy, happy, fun, joyous, full of laughter ...

    BIG HUGS (and a pretty significant happy dance)!!

    Barb

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lunch was freaking hilarious Collette! The anaesthetic was still affecting Pablo so he kept tipping over to the side and his eyes were heavy. He had gauze taped on both wrists where his IV's were and he had two hospital bracelets on. I can only wonder what people were thinking...

    Barb, it was definitely a good day and hopefully a sign of good things to come! Thanks for the happy dance!

    Jen, Kim hasn't even read it yet so she might want it back before it gets passed to you...

    ReplyDelete
  3. They probably thought you were trying to break him out of the mental ward and figuring that it was really nice of you to feed him while you were on the run!

    ReplyDelete

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