Answer: Watch TV shows you’d never watch at home; Eat junk food you’d never eat at home; and sit for hours in a hospital lobby just to access wifi.
Question: What are things you do when you have 3 weeks to burn on a military base with a kid recovering from surgery?
Also, rotate Tylenol and Motrin like clockwork, using the back of a memo announcing installation of wifi in your “hotel,” to record times and doses, and take an extra trip to the water fountain for filtered water because you spotted another adult there, who just might want to make conversation for five minutes!
Note: Said TV shows might, or might not, include Duck Dynasty and TMZ.
Note: The aforementioned memo stated that work on the wifi network would be complete on Friday… Last Friday. So why am I sitting in the hospital lobby to publish this post?
Thanks to G-d and modern medicine; Bob’s surgery was successful. He had a great team of a surgeon, anesthesiologist and nurses, who were all kind, supportive and helpful. He is now recovering as expected. The pain is present but tolerable. We now spend our days “chilling” in the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters and the hospital lobby.
As you can see in this picture that I took of the hospital from the back entrance to our lodging, the distance between the two buildings is pretty insignificant. It takes about 5 minutes to walk. Bob was labeled a “fall risk” and got a ride in a wheelchair, pushed by a young Corpsman, from the hospital, all the way to our room after surgery.
I’m struggling as much as I thought I would with being away from Horatio and the other boys. Of course I’m used to being away from Horatio, since he travels A LOT and has been gone on deployments for longer than I can count, but I’ve never been away from the boys for more than a few days and I don’t like it.
OK, I’m not going to lie, I don’t mind not having to do laundry for 4 other people and I don’t mind not having to cook dinners and pack school lunches, but I’d trade this “rest and relaxation” for the chores any day if it meant Bob felt better and we could be home, all together. Doctor’s orders are to stay here for two weeks after surgery. If you want to know why, use Dr. Google. I won’t bore you, or gore you, with the details.
Horatio is doing a bang up job with all of the tasks at home, so I’m not worried about that aspect of things. I’m wondering, though, why our kind-hearted host government offered to take him and the boys out to dinner EVERY night while I’m gone; but when he’s gone, it’s “Erin who? What boys?” Seriously, they offered! Respect to Horatio for turning them down. He’s been cooking up a storm, making good use of the grill we recently purchased from our beloved neighbors, when they packed up and shipped their household goods three weeks ago, in preparation for their move this summer. He’s also coming up with some creative menus and catering to the boys’ tastes. He even made a trip to Cotsco this morning to get more meat… something I rarely do since I haven’t eaten meat since I was 12 years old. I will not mention how long ago that was. I do cook meat for the family, just not often, or as well, as Horatio does it.
So, here we sit, in the hospital lobby, of course, using the wifi. Soon, we will head back to the room for dinner, which will consist of something soft for poor Bob and something simple for me.
Bob in Recovery
Bob, the second day following surgery… Known to be the worst day… Yep!
On the mend today, with meds on board…
We are both relieved to be in the after part of the surgery and are eager for Bob’s pain to subside. We see the doc again in 11 days and if all is well, we will fly home in 13 days. After that, there will be just one more month of school and then, like nearly every other US expat, we will fly the coop for the whole summer! (More on that later.)
The Deployment Diatribes 