Recuperating

Yesterday was my first full day at home where I spent the majority of it by myself. Harry (AKA the King – no, I haven’t let him live that down yet ) had to go back to work. It was a very strange feeling to be home on a Monday. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever had something major to get well from. I’d never stayed in a hospital before, and my only trips there were 2 or 3 short ones to the ER when I had an ear infection on the weekend and needed an antibiotic. So this is uncharted territory here….

The first thing I had to do was get my appointments set. They told me on Saturday when I was released to call the clinic on Monday and make 2 appointments – one on Wed. to have my staples removed and one with the surgeon in 2 weeks. They told me that I would have the staple removal probably done by a nurse. I also had to make an appt. with my primary doctor. So, as soon as the respective offices opened yesterday, I phoned to take care of that business. Primary dr. appt. was made with no problem. The person at the surgical clinic wasn’t quite as easy to deal with. I start off by saying I need an appointment for Wed. to have my staples removed. OK, so she has me repeat this to her a couple of times, gets my name, and puts me on hold. She comes back and says, ok, so you need an appointment with Dr. so and so (the surgeon)….and I say, yes, but first I need an appointment on Wed to have my staples removed. She gives me an appointment for my 2 week follow-up (good, we’re halfway there) and then she says, well, Dr. so and so isn’t here this week….and I respond, yeah they told me a nurse would take care of it. Her turn: well, I can’t make an appointment with a nurse, it has to be with a doctor…Me (Miss Logical) – well, go ahead and make it with whomever, I don’t think I’ll really be seeing a doctor for more than a minute, so it doesn’t matter who it is. Back on hold I go. This time I’m on hold for several minutes. Now she comes back and says, I have your discharge order here, it doesn’t say anything about calling to have the staples removed. Well, if I’d known that would be an issue, I would have asked them to write it down for me, but I figured I could remember to call and make an appointment to have 26 staples taken out of my abdomen!! (I also thought about saying that I thought Harry had a staple remover, but didn’t think he was up to it.) I was good though, I said, yes, I have my discharge order here too, and I know what it says, but this is what they told me to do. She finally relented and gave me an appointment for Wed. at 2.

Phew, making those appointments was more work than I thought it would be! Guess what I did the rest of the day… …that’s right – nothing much.