Monday, January 14, 2013

Surgery went well

I promised Geneva that I would update her blog while she is in the hospital (I can't wait till I get a tumor and have her do everything for me for a change) and I am not as eloquent as she is, so here it goes. As I promised her, I will try not to leave out any details.

We [Geneva, her Father (Terry) and I], arrived at the hospital at 5:45 am to get her checked in, and ready for the O.R. The wait wasn't very long which was nice because all three of us were quite the spectacle of catatonic beauty and patient hysteria that early in the morning. The first 5 minutes of the conversation between Geneva and her nurse consisted of Geneva apologizing for her deathly vicious farts and the nurse apologizing for her garlic breath. (They hit it off right away and will be bff's for life now)

Phase two of the morning's events had us moved to a new room (same nurse) and Geneva was having her IV inserted. Her veins were less than cooperative so the nurse, who was very apologetic, was digging around with no luck. Through this whole time Geneva was true to form and was cracking jokes as if nothing was happing. Geneva had said something to the effect of "don't slip and poke yourself," as part of some punch line to a joke I can't remember but the nurse's eye's got really big and we could tell she was dying to tell us the story of a lifetime. In the not to distant past, this nurse had a patient flinch while she was putting the needle in and she ended up poking her self. Apparently, this patient then proceeded to tell her she was a prostitute but not to worry, she was clean. If any of you know Geneva well, you will know that we spent the rest of pre-surgery on that subject.

So, to recap, we had been at the hospital for about an hour by this time and our morning had consisted mostly of discussions of hookers, garlic breath and farts.....Typical morning at the Atwood house I'd say.

Shortly thereafter, Geneva was taken away for surgery and I went home for some beauty sleep, cuz I'm worth it, and returned to the hospital at 11am to meet the surgeon for an update on how everything went. "Everything was successful," he said and she would be moved to ICU in a few hours.

The kids and I went back to see her later in the afternoon and she was doing great. Still groggy from the medication, she was having trouble staying awake which made the kids a bit scared that she wasn't doing well. I gathered the three of them close together, wiped their little innocent tears and I reassured them that she wasn't closing her eyes and drifting off because something went wrong, it was because she just didn't love them enough to stay awake.

The kids were really cute, snapping pictures of her with their ipods, checking out all the wires and machines attached to her (well except for Carson who had found a chair in the corner and was watching ParaNorman on his ... the kid couldn't give a crap .....I love that little fart). Geneva was really tired so we didn't stay much more than a couple of minutes.

Terry and Linda went after we left and informed me she was a bit more up for visiting. She is improving with every minute and so far the only symptom of the surgery is some minor double vision in her right eye which they are watching and are confident will subside as swelling goes down.

She sends her love to you all and I can't thank you all enough for your support, prayers and positive energy.

I shall update again as soon as I have more news.

Ken
(just kidding about the "not loving them" part of the blog)
 

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update and the laughs!! Hope all continues to go well though her recovery. We love you and will continue praying for your wonderful family.

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  2. Thanks so much Ken. You are a wonderful husband to do this for Geneva. It means a lit to her friends and family who ate far away.
    Please tell her when she's awake that Kathie Douglas (Kristina's Mom) sends prayers & hugs.

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  3. Thanks for the update ken! We have all been thinking of you guys today. The first thing Jensen asked when he walked in the door after school today was, "how is Geneva? Have you heard anything yet?" We sure love you guys and will continue to pray for all of you!
    Brent and Jen

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  4. Leave it to Ken to make brain surgery so funny. Thanks for the update. You guys are in our thoughts and prayers!

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