“We have a big day tomorrow. Why don’t you try and get some rest?”
Nikkie came to curl up beside me on the couch. I was still holding Everett, even though he had been asleep for the last hour. Once again, Nikki and I were headed out of town and our son had to stay with extended family. This time my parents were going to watch him. At first they thought the whole family should come down to Dallas for my surgery, but I told them that I would be fine as long as I had Nikki.
“I know. I just want to enjoy home as long as I can.”
“We will be home in a few days. Preop, surgery day, then 2 days max.”
“That’s right. It won’t be long this time.”
“Why don’t you let me put Ev in his nursery and we will at least attempt to get some sleep before tomorrow?”
I kissed our son and gave him to Nikki. I followed her to the nursery and watched her gently tuck the covers around him. She took my hand after she turned off the light and we walked together to our bedroom.
How I wished the bags laying on the floor in our bedroom were for a fun trip, or even for tour. I tried to shake the reminder from my brain so I could enjoy the last night at my house as a whole person. When I came back I would be missing a rib and probably in a lot of pain, according to the information the hospital sent and the research I did on my own. I tossed and turned for a good while until Nikki gently put her hand on my arm to settle me. Once I was still, she rubbed my back until I fell into something resembling sleep.
I woke up to Nikki’s head on my chest and her arm wrapped around my waist. I didn’t move. I didn’t want to break the moment. Everette decided to do that for us.
Nikki jumped out of bed to go check on our son. I made up the bed and went to the kitchen to start coffee and breakfast for us.
“Smells good,” she said, walking into the kitchen.
I handed her a plate and we sat at the kitchen table eating our eggs and toast in silence.
The drive to Dallas was the longest four hours of my life. The road seemed to stretch on and on. Dallas had so many good memories for me, I hoped they wouldn’t be tainted by bad memories of my illness.
We had gotten on the road late, so we had to rush to the hospital for my preop appointment.
“You’re late,” the lady at the front desk informed me when I checked in.
“I know, our son threw a fit when we left. We had to stay and calm him down.”
“Ok. Have a seat, we will work you in when we can. But Dr. Grimsley won’t have it if you are late tomorrow.” She handed me a stack of paperwork to fill out and pointed me to a seat in the waiting room.
One of the forms was a four page document explaining all the risks and complications of the surgery. I quickly signed the paper and put it to the side. I didn’t want to deal with what-ifs and worst cases right now. I would just have to deal with any complications as they came up. I finished signing everything and turned it back in.
“Thanks,” she said taking the papers without glancing away from her computer screen.
Finally they called me back. Nikki stood up to come with me, but the nurse said “We’ll only be a few minutes, and there isn’t much room on the lab. You can come back when he meets with the doctor.” She nodded and sat back down. I noticed she had been on the same magazine page for a good half hour.
“Step on that scale for me.” She nodded and wrote down the number in my chart.
“Ok, have a seat,” she pointed to a lab chair. “When is the last time you had your blood thinners?” She asked.
“Two days ago,” I said around the thermometer she placed in my mouth.
“Good. Go ahead and take off your jacket for me.”
She took my blood pressure and about four vials of blood. I got dizzy around the time she got to the last one.
“You ok?” she asked as she slipped the needle out of my arm.
“Yeah, I’ll be ok.” I said.
“When did you eat last?”
“I had breakfast around 8 this morning.”
She nodded. “I know it’s all overwhelming, but Dr. Grimsley is the best we have. Maybe even the best in the United States.”
“That’s helpful, thank you.”
“It’s not only helpful, it is true. You’ll meet with him next. Dr. Grimsley will explain everything and answer your questions. Go back out to the waiting room, I’ll call you when he is ready.”
“Thanks.”
“All done?” Nikki asked when I came back out.
“No, I’ve got to wait to talk to the doctor.”
She shook her head, as if to clear it, “That’s right, they already told us that.” She was still on the same magazine page.
It wasn’t long until they called me back again. This time the nurse led me to the doctor’s office.
“Clarke,” Dr. Grimsley held out his hand, then went around behind his desk. He pulled up my information on the computer.
“It says here you prefer to go by Isaac. I’ll try to remember that. All of your labs look good. I expect this surgery to go smoothly, you’re in good shape. No alcohol for the rest of the day, and nothing to eat after midnight. Do you have any questions for me?”
“So you think maybe I could be out by Friday afternoon?”
“Quite possibly. It’s hard for me to say, but according to your labs, you’ve been doing everything I’ve advised you to do, that will certainly help. What other questions do you have?”
“That’s all. I read all the paperwork you sent and I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. I’ll see you in the morning I guess.”
“See you then. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
Yeah right, I thought. I shook his hand and left.
We booked a hotel right across the street from the hospital. I wanted Nikki to be able to sleep in a real bed at some point. It didn’t take us long to check in.
Both of us had nervous energy to work off, so we decided to walk around town for a bit. It was a sunny day and a fair bit warmer than Tulsa. We admired the Christmas decorations in the shops and even managed to pick out a few Christmas gifts for friends and family. It was nice to think about Christmas.
“I told Nat we would probably cancel our Christmas party this year,” Nikki said. “You need to rest.”
“I think we need to have it,” I said. “You know I will help as much as I can. Tour turned out pretty good and we can order catering if we need to. It will be nice to have something normal after the crazy tour we’ve had.”
“Yeah. I hope the future ones aren’t as hectic.”
“The thing is, life doesn’t stop when we are on the road. We still have to carry all of our problems with us. And when you throw all those problems onto a bus rolling down the road at 70 miles an hour things have a way of exploding.” I squeezed her hand. “This tour was extra crazy. We dealt with it as best we could, which didn’t turn out to be very well at all.”
“I think you dealt with it better than most people would.”
“Are you ready for some dinner? We haven’t had anything since breakfast.” I didn’t mean to change the subject so abruptly, but I didn’t want to be late.
“Sure, what are you in the mood for?”
“Actually, I already made reservations for us at Uchi.”
“Oooh, Japanese. And fancy Japanese. Love it.” She touched her hair. “I would like to change first. I didn’t bring a dress, though.”
“You look beautiful. But I think we have time to go back to the hotel and freshen up a bit.”
“Okay, that will have to do. I guess I’ll have to always start wearing a suit like you,” she said as we started making our way back.
“I would certainly miss those dresses, though.”
She laughed and kissed me on the cheek as the doorman of the hotel ushered us inside.
All too soon, dinner was over and we were headed back to the hotel to rest. My preop instructions said to make it an early night, but I knew that I wouldn’t sleep. Despite Dr. Grimley’s confidence, I was headed into a serious operation. It was scary no matter how I tried to rationalize it.