Septoplasty

Yesterday was a different kind of a day from the normal grind. We all got up at the same time except my wife who woke up 30 minutes early. Since it was senior day for our son who was graduating from public high school, he decided to drive himself to school for the first time ever. They let the seniors out of school early after lunch and I told him we would not be home early to pick him up. We left the house a bit earlier than we expected and arrived at the hospital 30 minutes before the scheduled time of 8:30am. My wife was due to have her septoplasty at 10am and we began the waiting game. I took me Apple MacBook so I could spend the time either writing my book or learning Hindi. When we sat down in the general waiting area, I tried to see what wireless networks were available. There were two secure and one open wireless and so I was all set with internet access to learn some Hindi using Live Mocha. My wife was a bit nervous so it helped that I was not trying to talk to her but acted as if it was a normal situation. She had been given a paper that had her number on it and periodically an announcement was made but the numbers seemed to be totally random and unrelated numbers to the others we heard being called out. Finally she heard her number and after just a couple of minutes the initial insurance forms were complete. We then moved to the other side of the general waiting area at the front of the hospital. It was more like a huge room decorated like a high end hotel waiting area as the chairs were very nice to sit in. I know my wife did not notice such things, but I was in that area for the next six hours! At the desk on the other side of the room at the entrance to the surgery rooms, we were given a buzzing handheld device like is done at restaurants to notify you when your table is ready. It buzzed many times throughout the hours to tell us we were needed for certain events. It was just a great experience overall to make the best of place where no one wants to be. The deviated septum was fixed without any complications and we arrived home before 3pm. Our daughter was waiting to help in what ever way possible, so that was a pleasant but expected surprise for my wife, who needed the attention and help through the rest of the day. She had to sleep in a reclining chair all last night but they gave her really strong medicine to knock her out. I have to go find out how she feels...

almost dead

My daughter has a friend who is having her tonsils out soon. When I heard this it reminded me of an event in my own life when I was that same age. I used to get the flu yearly when I was a kid and it would generally knock me out for a week. One year was worse than all the rest. I need to digress a bi for more context. We had around 25 chickens with a single rooster. I would gather the eggs most mornings and each spring we would breed about the same number of chicks. About the same time of year I would get the nasty task of completely cleaning out the whole chicken coup. My mother realized my flu symptoms were related to my unwholesome chore, so I did not resist her insistence that I quit.

Before I stopped my chicken cleaning duties, I just could not get over my flu symptoms one year. I was on the local basketball team and we had a big game coming up which I could not miss. On the morning of the big game I had trouble getting out of bed as my stomach hurt so much I could not stand up straight. My mother took me to our family doctor 1 mile away and he had me rushed to the hospital 10 miles away (the distances are important). When I arrived at the emergency room, they rushed me into the operating room and quickly took out my appendix. I had gange green and my appendix had ruptured about 30 minutes before they removed it. Later the doctor told me I had come close to dying. The drugs I received gave me serious hallucinations that I still remember.

What does all of this have to do with tonsilitus? I shared a room in the children's ward with a girl who had her tonsils removed. I was in the hospital a week and so was she, so we got to know each other pretty well. It took me several days before I could walk on my own and she did not feel like moving either. We finally both made it down to the community room to watch TV and play games, which was a whole lot better than being bored in bed. I don't recall her name at all, but I remember she loved eating her meals of cold ice cream, when I didn't feel like eating at all.

From that day on, my mother used to tell me how thankful I should be that GOD had spared me for a reason.