Friday, March 13, 7 p.m. CT
I’m sitting here by the phone in the surgical waiting room. A divorced couple, fresh off an argument over weekend custody of their son, shares with me that their daughter is having a tumor removed from her spine. It is touching how they forget everything else to act as one when talking about her predicament. Almost like a married couple finishing each other’s sentences. I suppose that’s something many couples never outgrow after divorce.
I internally thank them that they asked me first why I was here, because spinal tumor is hard to follow with something as routine as gall bladder removal. Even more so when they tell me that the first tumor on her spine was cancerous and they’re hoping this one won’t be. She responded well to the chemo the first time, they say.
“She had a mass removed from her lung a while back and it wasn’t cancerous!” the father tells me as he jubilantly raises his fists and his eyes squint from his huge smile.
How heartbreaking that a father has to derive excitement from something like that.
He continues, “Her surgeon is amazing. He got started a little late because he removed a tumor from someone’s brain earlier today and it went a little long.”
Wow.
Sure, Shannon’s surgeon bumped her up to tonight instead of the following Wednesday morning, but those poor parents are going through emotions I can’t imagine. And, despite their being divorced and their argument earlier, they seem to be leaning on each other.
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Friday, March 13, 11:30 p.m. CT

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Above is the window view from Shannon’s hospital room, stitched by Hugin (free) from several photos. She’s still in enough pain that only the stuff from the intravenous line gives her any relief, so we’re staying overnight. The hearts on the left are on the nearby heart hospital’s exterior walls, and a walkway between it and this hospital runs across the frame.
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Saturday, March 14, 11:30 a.m. CT

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Above is my view from my little corner of Shannon’s post-op room, again stitched by Hugin (albeit badly because I wasn’t nearly as careful about how I took the pictures). As you might see on my laptop, I watched the first episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” today and I think I’m hooked already. Darn you and your cleverness, Joss Whedon!
Nothing taken orally puts a dent in Shannon’s pain, so they might not release her today. I’m about to go switch places with her mom so that I can hang out with Benjamin and go get some things Shannon needs from home.
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On another note, Shannon’s anesthesiologist must have been a model in his former life. Sheesh. Maybe the medical shows aren’t so far off when they depict doctors as the best-looking people in the working world. I make that distinction because modeling isn’t real work compared to saving lives.