3 April 2022
At 1:16 a.m. Saturday morning Dr. Tong left a brief voice message telling me Joyce had done well. It's a two-hour surgery, so she must have started around 11 p.m. No other details.
Joyce called the next morning and sounded pretty good considering. But she had no idea when she would be released.
Around 2 p.m. I decided to drive over and take advantage of the new visitor policy which, well, let me in after the pandemic prohibition.
She was on the cardiac ward, the only room they could find for her (since her heart is fine). She was sleeping after lunch (just an orange, refusing the rest of the meal as inedible) when I got there.
I took her for a walk around the ward a couple of times and she did well. Eventually a doctor we had never met popped in, took a look at the Ace bandage wrapping the wound, saw there was no "seepage" and released her.
We didn't leave until more Oxycodine had been delivered to the room. The nurse wasn't aware of it but I had a text message that it was on its way.
She doesn't need any more. She had three vials of the stuff at home still.
We had a green salad and garlic clam pizza for dinner. She devoured it. Then we watched the Warriors beat the Jazz in an improbable comeback from 20 points down.
She's been in surprisingly good spirits considering how depressed she was about another surgery. So it all worked out according to plan and it's back to the hyperbaric chamber on Monday and on to another 20 sessions and probably another couple of surgical debridements before we talk about the Integra again.
Or not.