Eventful, Uneventful Day

We had a full day yesterday, at least I did, Garth just kind of laid around. He had knee replacement surgery which went very well. We are on a first-name basis with the nurses in the surgery prep room and they were as nice as always to us. Garth was the first surgery scheduled, along with a lot of little kids seeing Dr. Peterson for tonsils or tubes. In fact, I didn't see any other adult getting ready for surgery the entire morning. Garth was wheeled in to the OR about 7:30 and I was bussed to come back to the waiting area around 11:00. Dr. Heiner finally came in to see me at 11:30. He is such a kind doctor and always makes us feel like we are the most important people for him at that moment. He said Garth's knee really needed to be replaced, that the bone had grown very hard because of the constant rubbing bone-on-bone. I guess it just hardens and polishes the bone as it rubs and rubs. Anyway, he had no troubles getting the new part in and everything went very well.

Garth was brought into his room about 12:00 and was wake but groggy. He slept most of the afternoon. The PT brought in his torture machine and got him bending the leg right off the bat. This particular PT really wants to get that knee back in bouncing shape because he asks Garth to be a "special" visitor every December for the PT company's Christmas party and he knows how important that knee is for kids to sit on. We have a very nice visit with him. He asked about my knee because he was one of the PTs who worked on getting my incision to heal, which they weren't able to accomplish. Hopefully, Garth won't have any of those problems.

We didn't get great service from the nurse yesterday, she kind of just ignored us. She would come in and take the vitals, but didn't help with any of our requests. Garth was itching very badly (I remember how horrible that is!), most likely from the block he got. He asked for medicine for the itching, which he was given about an hour after getting in the room. Three hours later it started to wear off so I asked for him to get another one...shot, pill, I don't remember which. She returned and said it would have to be 30 minutes later because it was too soon since the last one, which was fine, he could wait that long. But with all the checking vitals, fixing the infusions, etc, he never got the shot. We asked again, long wait, no shot. He also was asking how long he would have to be on the machine because he just wanted to stretch out his leg for a little while and give his hips a rest. She said she would check on it, but never returned with an answer. When different nurses came in we asked the same questions and got the same responses. One of our favorite nurses, Kelly, (who is Kaitlin Bell's mother-in-law) stopped in to say hello. We asked her to see if she could get the nurses on the ball. She smiled and said she would go tell them to do their job, then returned and said they would be here in a minute. But our nurse never came. I got to thinking that when I was in last we had the same problem one shift, until Tyler Jeffs' wife came in, and she got things hopping. I was wishing she still worked there. And, low and behold, who walks in to check why the machine was beeping? Tiffany!

She didn't understand why the machine hadn't been checked, and then we told her all the rest of the stuff that had gone on. She said she would get someone on it fast. About an hour later she came back in and asked if everything was better. We told her we hadn't seen any one else, that no one had come in yet. She was furious! She gave us her cell phone number to call her direct, even though she was there on shift. And in just a few minutes we had another nurse who hovered over us all night.

It was a good thing because by then Garth was throwing up. There was no basin, no wash cloth, no towels, nothing to help him with. I ran to the nurses station and our nurse jumped up, got all our supplies, and came running. She was so sorry that the room wasn't stocked for us. We didn't even have the traditional "hospital cup". She was upset that the shift before hadn't done their job. She got Garth the medicine he need for the itching. Just out of curiosity I asked her when the first one was given and she said it was at 1:00. It was now 7:30. About time for another one! I overheard her telling another nurse that the antibiotic IV bag hadn't been signed and initialed on his chart, either. I think someone might not have a job next time. We were very pleased with the night nurse, just not to happy with the afternoon nurse.

Overall, Garth is doing well. This morning he said he leg really hurts. He got up and walked (shuffled) to the nurses station and back, which is a good walk for the first time! I am proud of him for doing that far. He is a very patient patient, but will get a bit testy if he doesn't get the service he needs. So nurses, beware! Santa won't come to visit you if you don't do your job!