Mystery meat for dinner

I find myself staring out into the night at the lighted windows across the way. In the other hospital rooms and offices, there is little movement. I am staring at nothing in particular when the large flakes start to float down from the sky. It’s the only change I’ve seen in hours. I tell my mom, “Look, it’s snowing.” She leans over to the window, glances up and says “Stop it!.” Oddly enough that command 5 minutes ago seems to have been heard and the snow is stopping.

We’ve spent 10 hours in the hospital now with only a quick vacation to get some lunch. Much of it was spent in the waiting room of the Ambulatory Surgery department. It is a waiting room designed for people that will be there a long time and will be worried. The front desk ladies call everyone “Family.” They say things like “Hi Family, how are you doing?” They are friendly and efficient. They know that everyone wants to know where their family member is and when they will be finished. There is a genius tv that has individual patient tracking. If you know my father’s number you can see when his status is “In OR” or “Surgery Started.”

It’s stayed at “Surgery Started” for around 3 hours with my father. We weren’t really sure how long it took to slit someone’s throat, move all the insides to one side and yank out two discs from the spinal cord. Discs 4-5 and 5-6 to be exact. My mother was a perfect example of calm, or hiding fear. Myself, I got a bit jittery there for a minute or so.

We both felt better when my sister arrived with a $10, 2 pound burrito. We lightened the mood with our unending sense of humor. Why were there 20 puzzles available to us, some in just ziplock bags, and NO Operation game? ZZZ! Damn! Missed the bread basket!

My family deals with fear and insecurity with humor. We all do. Which means we are badly behaved in hospitals. We are probably the only one frequently found laughing in inappropriate places. How else would I have discovered that the light switch in the waiting room also changes the channel on the tv when you turn the lights on? How would I own those two surgical caps?

In fact, just this moment I said “Psst. When dad falls asleep put one of these funny caps on him!” “He’s getting very tired now,” my mom replies. With his eyes closed my dad says “I’m not sleeping you know.” “Yes you are,” my mom tells him.

My comic strip would not exist with this humor and I’m sure I would not exist without it either. Surely this is what brought my parents together.

He’s slowly falling asleep and mom is getting anxious to go. What if the weather Gods disobey her and it starts snowing again?

It’s cold and dark outside. I know we should be going but I don’t want to leave my father. Can’t I just sleep here in this chair?