One Down And One To Go

Rantoul, IL.

60 deg. mostly cloudy, SE wind @ 3 mph. Thunder in the distance.
Forecast = Partly cloudy with isolated storms. Highs around 82°F. South southeast wind 5 to 10 MPH. Chance of precipitation 20 percent.

Yesterday morning was kind of hard for Linda and Jim. That's the problem with having "later in the day" appointments, you can't really start anything and you end up just sitting around, thinking about what's going to happen and worrying about it. :-(

About 11:45, they headed out to Big RED and he took them down to the Carl Hospital in Urbana.

The trip down there was uneventful, but once Big RED dropped Linda off at the hospital door and the nice volunteer took Linda inside, it was time to try to find a parking place for RED. Well, the only place to park was in this huge parking garage. He told me that as he went into the garage, there was a sign that said that there was a 7' height limit inside and he was sure he wasn't that high.

Once inside and making his way around the corners and up the ramps, he was sure that some of those beams from the above floors were below 7' though. He said that at times, he thought for sure that he was going to hit some of those beams with his roof!!! They looked really low!!!! :-O

Well, he made it up to the 3rd level where Jim backed him into a parking spot.

And, that's where he stayed for the next 5 1/2 hours!!!!!!

Yep, you read hat right!!!! 5 1/2 hours!!!!!

By the time Jim got into the hospital, Linda had registered and was waiting for him in the lobby. From there, another nice volunteer wheeled Linda up to the 2nd floor and to the section called, "Same Day Surgery", where Linda signed in at another desk.

After waiting in the waiting room for awhile, a nurse came out and took Linda back to the surgery area where she started the pre-op procedure.

After about an hour, Jim was finally led back to Linda's room by a very nice volunteer lady where he and Linda waited and waited and waited for Linda's turn in the operating room!!! :-(

It was so cold in the room that after while, Jim went to the nurses desk and asked for more blankets for Linda. One of the nurses brought her a couple blankets that she evidently got out of a blanket warmer because they were very warm when she put them over Linda. :-)

About 4:45, they finally came and got Linda out of the room and took her to surgery. The surgery only took about 20 minutes or so and in about 1/2 hour she was back in the room where Jim was still waiting.

As soon as she returned, they gave Linda some crackers and something to drink. Soon Dr. Anderson came into the room and gave Linda instructions on what to do, as far as putting drops into her eye etc. After that, the nurse got Linda up and dressed, got her into the wheel chair and told Jim to go get the car and they would bring Linda down to the patient pick-up area.

Big RED said that coming back down the ramps in the parking garage was even scarier than going up!!! He was on the inside of the turns and now he had to try to turn real sharp to miss cars that were going up the ramp, plus worry about hitting his roof on one of those beams!!!

He made it though and soon was parked in the patient pick-up area, waiting for Linda. :-) In just a few minutes, Linda arrived, (Wheeled there by another volunteer), and got into Big RED.

Whew!!!!

Being that Linda had not had anything to eat or drink, (except the crackers and drink up in the room after surgery), since about 10:00 the night before, she was very hungry and asked Jim if they could stop somewhere and get something to eat. So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  they headed over to the Urbana Gardens Restaurant where they both had very nice meals and relaxed a little. (Jim had to read the menu to Linda).   ;-)

After eating, Big RED brought Linda and Jim back here to the CG where they both relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Linda's eye seems to be doing fine. Everything was still blurry when she went to bed last night, but that's normal. I think she slept well and in fact is still sleeping, so, she must be comfortable.

Wednesday, she has an appointment at Dr. Anderson's office for a follow up check of her eye. Then, it will be decided for sure when she will have surgery on the other eye.

Did you know that today is "Wonderful Weirdoes Day"?

Woof!!!