Waiting for (go) Joe - December 10, 2014

Waiting for (go)Joe

Posted Dec 10, 2014 11:22am

It's here. The day of surgery. We woke around 3 this morning just to make sure we wouldn't be late for our 5:30 check in time. Dave and Holly Lippold met us at the hospital, completing Joe's in-hospital support network. After Joe checked in, we headed to the surgery waiting room. They allowed me to go back with him along with my dad and mom—good choice seeing as I'm hilarious.

Joe changed into his scrubs and was informed he even had to change his socks. Seeing as Joe is a giant and this is a Children's Hospital, as the attending anesthesiologist informed us, neither the bed nor the new socks fit him. As his feet hung off the bed and out of his socks, we waited for a myriad of nurses and attendings to come and speak with us.

As the nurses and attendings spoke to us about what the surgery had in store, we got word that my aunt Teresa and the Lippolds had food for us—lots of food. My first instinct as a college student was to run and get in line. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t college and my only competition was sitting right next to me (my parents). (And I can beat them).

I started reminiscing with Joe about my shoulder surgeries—more a cautionary tale. I had been sufficiently drugged into a semi-comitose state prior to surgery, but I was desperately clinging to my consciousness. The nurse had wheeled me into the surgery room, and it somehow registered to me that I would need to transfer from my bed to the operating table. I didn't want to burden anyone, so I decided I would get myself from the bed to the table. I began to try to sit up and maneuver myself between the two beds. The nurses told me, oh no, hun, we'll do that for you. There's no way you can do that alone! I'll help you, my drugged conscious thought. No really honey, we've got it.

And that's all I remember. I imagine the nurses whispered something like, knock her out, and the put in the final dose of anesthesia.

Anyways, back to Joe.

Joe was incredibly calm through it all. In fact the nurse told us Joe was the calmest, easiest patient she's seen. To keep Joe's brain working while we waited the nearly hour and a half for them to take him back to the operating room, I decided to ask him a series of thought-provoking questions. Here are some of our favorites:
*Why do they call it quicksand when it sucks you down slowly?
*If swimming is good for your shape, then why do whales look the way they do?
*If the #2 pencil is so popular, why is it still #2?
*If 4 out of 5 people suffer from diarrhea, does the fifth enjoy it?
*How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

These incredibly deep and serious questions kept Joe, my parents and even the nurses laughing. They soon gave Joe his first dose of pills. We could tell they took effect because he found my jokes less and less entertaining. He got groggy quickly and was looking forward to taking a nice sleep during surgery.

Soon enough, 7:30 rolled around and it was time for Joe to roll out. We hugged him goodbye, I warned him to not try to help the nurses in getting him from his bed to the operating table, and we headed back to the waiting area. Needless to say, I beat my parents to the food and feasted on Panera.

Love you all! We so appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Jessica

**First Update from Surgery: Everything is going well. Joe’s IV went in easily. The surgery clock began at 9:00 am.