When we got up yesterday it was still very dark and dawn was nowhere in sight. My mom and Jan (The Handyman) picked us up at about 7am and we left for the hospital. The kid came too despite the fact the school didn’t really agree to her being out. We feel she would’ve been too nervous to do much in class anyway and she’d want to be at the hospital for this.

The appointment for surgery was at 8:15am but when we got there (early) and one of the nurses went over the pre-op procedure again that the surgery was not going to happen until 10:15am. Great, so now we have a 2 hour longer wait for things to even get going. Not like we all weren’t nervous enough.

She was then shown to her room she’d be staying in and told where she can put her belongings and to make sure to remove all jewelry. She had already done so, apart from her wedding ring which is on left hand right now.

So now we had to kill tie for another 2 hours.. No TV yet, though we applied for it they still didn’t turn it when I left at the end of the day. No Spongebob. Time passed and we were all very nervous. 10am… almost! 10:15am…. nothing… wait, what? 10.30am.. still nothing.. gah! Then at about 10:40am someone finally came to tell her it was gonna be a little later (well duh, we figured that out already).

Then like 3 minutes after that came another doctor to tell her she was gonna be taken to the pre-op room and be prepped for surgery. This was it, no turning back now. When it all still felt somewhat surreal at first, this is where the realization of the situation kicks in. It’s like standing in line for a rollercoaster and the closer you get the more nervous you get. Then the gate opens and it’s your turn to go… and you almost want to just turn around and run away.

So they took her away and then we were left with more time to kill.. They said this kind of surgery takes about 2-4 hours, so there was plenty of time that needed to be wasted. We went down to the restaurant for a bit and had something to eat and drink. Mom and Jan then left for a bit while the kid and I remained at the hospital.

First we went to the little gift shop and looked around a bit. The kid bought a Donald Duck pocket. Then we decided to explore a little, starting at the top floor and work our way down. We looked at the various paintings there are hanging around, mainly in the stairways. There isn’t much you can go to though, so we were done pretty quick with that. Eventually we winded up in the waiting room on our section.

They had a TV there, but there wasn’t a whole lot on. Watched part of Two and a Half Men (I think) and some other silly sitcom. The kid then found a ‘hidden’ stash of games ‘n stuff in a cupboard on the other side of the room. We looked to see what all was there. They had a ‘200 in 1′ game box of which was evident upon opening there was no way even one of those games was complete.

First we tried Mikado (pick up sticks) but they didn’t have a lot of sticks left and they came in two sizes. So we decided to play some Snakes ‘n Ladders instead and after losing to the kid a few times we looked around for something else to do.

There were some (mini) dominoes in there, but again in no way complete. We just recently watched Domino Day 2008 though so we figured we’d try out a few tricks. Not easy with only like a handful of dominoes but we got some basic stuff working. We even made a small tower and later on we used some knock-off Lego’s to build a ramp. Up and down was ok, but then I wanted to try a slide down using rooftop pieces. That worked a few times, just not the one time I recorded it on the phone, lol.

More and more time was killed, every so often checking back in Sha’s room to see if she was back yet. God, this was taking forever. Finally, just after 3pm Lynda saw she was back and we went in to see how she was doing.

She looked sore, but good. I talked to her or a bit but she was also very tired. She said she could not remember anything from the operation itself. Just the part where the nurse went “Slaap lekker” (Sleep tight) and where they woke her up post-op. She initially said she wasn’t in any pain, but about an hour or so later she started to feel something so the nurse gave her 1000mg of Paracetamol.

Mom was informed and after I talked to her a bit she said she’d go look around for a bit in the nearby shopping area and come back later. She and Jan both gave me cards to give to Sha and a a little flowery basket she got for me to give to her.

We went back to Sha’s room and I showed her the cards ‘n stuff. We talked a little more but we mainly just tried to let her sleep. We sat in the room with her and the kid read her Donald Duck pocket. We also watched an episode of South Park on my Zen. Every once in a while she’d wake up and we’d give her something to drink they had there for her, water and lemonade.

Mom and Jan came back later and we ate something again at the restaurant downstairs. Expensive place. I then went upstairs one more time to say goodbye before I leave for the day and told her I’d be back tomorrow. She has her cellphone so she can text me when she wants to. She told me today she was feeling good, though her head hurts a bit.

I’m still nervous, I want her home, but it may take another day. I read her chart thingee and saw that in normal cases they won’t release until day 2 after the operation.

– UPDATE

Just talked to her and she’s not doing so well. She’s bleeding from both sides and is feeling dizzy. They’re doing blood tests. She also threw up a bit. :(