In case you were curious, waiting for surgery sucks. See, scheduling surgery as an inpatient is different than when you’re an outpatient. As an outpatient, you set a date and time, and that’s that. However, as an inpatient, you schedule a date and time that is likely, but not necessarily guaranteed. You are put on the schedule, but if another surgery goes long or if there’s an emergency, you get bumped. So, you don’t know for sure what will happen until the day of.
That being the case, I was relieved to be cleared first thing in the morning. However, there was a 4 hour time difference between that confirmation and the actual surgery. What does one do during that waiting period? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I watched E.T. and compulsively played solitaire on my phone. I actually set a new record for myself by winning a game in 43 seconds.
Mentally and emotionally, it’s a strange time. My thoughts frantically switched between wanting to get the surgery over and done, reflecting on the past year, wondering what my new life would be like, and wanting to run away, get in my car, and just start driving anywhere. Seeing as how I could barely eat or drink, I decided not to run away.
So, I just sat and waited.
