Hotels, Hospitals, and Friends

Last Sunday, we packed our bags and took off for the big city about two and a half hours away, where Doug was scheduled to have surgery on Monday morning.

We had made a reservation at the hotel that adjoined the hospital, although the doctor's nurse had not really encouraged us in that direction. She said the hotel was very old and out of date, although she had heard that some of the rooms had been refurbished and weren't so bad. When we called for the reservation, we requested one of the updated rooms but were told that they were assigned on a first-come-first-served basis, apparently meaning that they would be assigned to the first people who showed up for check in. So we went early enough to try to get the updated room or, failing that, to find another room at another hotel.

We did get an updated room and determined that it would meet our needs, although it was very basic. There were two double beds, sufficiently comfortable; a desk and chair, with a lamp and telephone on the desk; an easy chair with a shadeless floor lamp behind it; and a combination TV cabinet and chest of drawers.

The walls were without any pictures or other decorations; there was no wireless internet and not even a hair dryer in the bathroom. Since I hadn't packed my own hair dryer, my hair went unwashed during our stay. Fortunately, the stay was relatively short.

The television itself was very small. It was a color TV, but the colors were pretty much yellow and greenish black...not the best means of watching the Superbowl.

The doors to the rooms were ill fitting and rattled loudly, even with the simple act of inserting the magnetic key into the lock. It was impossible to close them quietly, and the sounds of doors rattling and banging echoed in the hall. Fortunately, the room's heating unit was loud enough to drown out those noises so that we could sleep.

But the selling point for this hotel was that it was connected to the hospital by a skywalk, which meant that we never had to go outside or worry about driving in a strange city.

The view from our 11th-floor window didn't include White Castle.

We met a lady who told us that she and her husband had heard gunfire from the White Castle hamburger joint on the corner near the hotel a couple of nights before and that they had even watched the excitement of the police department's response to the call from their 11th floor window.

Then she told us that, the next night, when her husband was in the hospital and she was alone in the hotel room, someone fell or was thrown against her door. She called security, and they told her that it had been a domestic dispute.

I saw her in the cafeteria on Monday morning, while Doug was in surgery (I do have my priorities), and she told me that someone had knocked on her hotel room door at three o'clock that morning. She had called security again and had had them escort her to the hospital, where the staff set up a cot for her in her husband's room. She spent the rest of the night there.

I honestly don't know whether the lady's fears were founded, but they could have been. I never felt in danger, though.

Doug could see the helicopter pad from his hospital bed.

Doug's surgery went well. He had to spend the rest of the day and night on total bed rest and was released to go home on Tuesday. As with just about any surgery, the doctors make it sound much simpler than the patient's experience would prove to be. We've had some moments of anxiety in the days following our return home, and have been in telephone contact with the doctor's nurse on three different occasions. She reassures us that the symptoms Doug is experiencing are fairly typical for this stage of recovery. That provides a degree of comfort and eases our anxiety somewhat.

As I was driving Doug home on Tuesday, I was planning to take him straight home and get him settled. Then I was going to go back into town to get carryout for our supper. My cell phone had rung while I was driving, but I couldn't easily grab the phone; and Doug wasn't feeling like talking to anyone. When we got home, I checked the cell phone to see who had called, and it had been my good friend, Sandra.

So I immediately called her back, before even taking off my coat. She had been calling to tell me that she was going to be sending her Hubby to our house at 5:00 p.m. with our supper! What a huge blessing that was. Sandra sent her famous Spaghetti Bake, a Caesar salad, garlic bread, and chocolate sheet cake. We got multiple meals out of that and thanked the Lord and Sandy with each one of them.