Monterey, part 2

Tuesday morning, 5:00 a.m. my alarm goes off. Since it was the alarm on my cell phone it sounded like a phone ringing. I was expecting this, so I thought nothing of it. Donny and my grandma, on the other hand, were both scared. Apparently they thought that somebody was calling us, and at that time of the morning phone calls are never good news.

Grandma and I both got up and dressed, and we were off. Mom was to arrive at the hospital at 6:00 a.m., and we wanted to meet her there. As we were pulling into the parking lot I realized that since I had left my cell phone with Donny I had no way to know where to find my parents. My solution was to drive around the parking lot looking for their car, and then use that entrance. I was hoping for signs leading to the surgical waiting room once we got inside.

That hospital has a big circular drive thing that leads to the main doors, and as we were going through it we happened to see my parents through a window. I zipped back around the drive, put the car in park and jumped out. By the time that I got in the front doors I managed to get a glimpse of my parents turning a corner. I went running after them, but they had a good start. I finally started hollering down the hallway to get my dad's attention. Of course, he just glanced back, and kept right on going. He figured if I followed him I'd find them. He had no clue that I was illegally parked and desperately trying to get back to my car. I finally hollered out that I had no clue where he was going. He turned and told me that they were there, so I turned and ran the other way. As I got to the front door I ran into my grandma, who had just made it inside. I pointed her in the right direction, and then went out to my car that was hanging open with the engine running.

After I parked I went in and the waiting began. Only one person was allowed in with my mom at that point, so we sat in the waiting room and tried to entertain ourselves. My dad finally came out and let us know that mom was showering with some special soap and then we could go see her. So then it was time to wait and try to entertain mom.

About 7:45 mom went to surgery, and we all decided to go to the cafe for some breakfast. Except the cafe doesn't open until 8:30. We sat and waited. We waited and sat. Somewhere in there we finally got some breakfast. Around 11:00 the doctor came out and let us know that surgery had been successful. He said that he was able to do it laproscopically, but because of her weight he had to use more pressure than he had thought would be required. Of course I didn't think to ask him to explain that remark, but I'm guessing that he's referring to the air that they had to put in her abdomen to make it possible to work in there. We were told that she'd be in recovery for about 2 hours and then she would go to her room, and that we couldn't see her until she got to her room. I suggested that we all go back to my motel room to wait, and we could have sandwiches for lunch while we were there. My dad didn't want to leave the hospital though, so it was just our family friend that was there and myself who went back.

Around 1:00 we went to see my mom and she looked pretty good.Some other friends of the family were there to see my mom, so her room was pretty full, and I couldn't really get over by her to see her though. I ended up taking their 3 year old son out to see the fishies (in the fountain in the main lobby) and try to let things settle down. I went back to my mom's room to return the kid and try to see my mom. Within 60 seconds of arriving at her room my dad handed me his cell phone and said that I needed to call my sister back. It was suggested that if I went to the seating area around the corner I might be able to hear better. As I hung up the phone from talking to my sister Donny came and found me to let me know that he was tired and needed to go back to the motel. So I finally got close enough to kiss my mom, and we left.