Oh, dear.... where to begin.

The day started around 4:30am, after sleeping very lightly through the night. I arrived at hospital just before 7am. The CA we've grown quite fond of, got Tony up and out of bed, for his bed/chair bath. New (doozy of a) nurse popped in to finish the job and put fresh linens on the bed. The countdown to surgery began..... and dragggggggggeeeeeeeeeddddddddd out alllllll day.

What does one do when sitting day after day in a far too small room for the furniture within? To pass the time we watch a bit of news on the television, do some reading, thumb through magazines, answer phone calls, or check email. Hmmm, that consumes about an hour out of the day... maybe a bit more. Beyond that, the hours seem to drag by ever so slowly.

We'd had high hopes surgery would be behind us at this point. This evening Dr. Graber took a break from his last surgery of the day, came up to inform us that although he could continue into the late hours of the night, he'd prefer having a well rested staff to work beside him. (aka: no surgery for Tony) Good thing, as I don't think I'd want an overworked and tired staff in the Operating Room. Dr. Graber kept insisting the problem was a shortage of anesthesiologists on staff. So, what now?

Tony was allowed to order dinner and resume the NPO orders at midnight. Dinner? Grilled Cheese sandwich and cold french fries! Dr. G. will keep his clinic hours tomorrow, and all being well, he'll have an operating room scheduled, along with an anesthesiologist. They'll attempt to prep Tony for surgery around 1-1:30pm. Surgery will hopefully take place around 3pm. (if the stars and planets align in the proper order, and so on)

"If" Plan B doesn't happen, then Dr. Graber has suggested he has surgeon friends in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Boston who could do the job! I'm trying very hard NOT to think about Tony having to be transferred to another facility, in another state, to get the surgery done! This is SO frustrating!!! He's also suggested that if tomorrow doesn't work out, then we take our complaints to the administrative staff. I certainly don't feel it would be in our best interest to get involved in anything of that sort, at least not till surgery is completed successfully!

Yes, I'm thankful for all that's been done to date. Yes, I appreciate the efforts of the doctors and staff. Yes, we couldn't be more blessed by the valiant efforts of most we've dealt with. How our Dr. Craig maintains his sanity and sense of humor is beyond me. Tony and I are simply tired of sitting in a little room, spending countless numbers of hours waiting and waiting, with scant bits of information to go by. Generally speaking, we have no clue what's going on from moment to moment, or day to day.

Tomorrow I'll have to inquire about the private hospital in town to see if our surgeon can get an OR and staff to do the surgery. At least the move wouldn't be more then a few blocks.

But, tomorrow is another day.... yet another day for us to hope things will move forward and Tony can get on with getting better.

Will keep you posted as the day progresses.

Much love to you all,

Pat