My Hospital Experience - June 12th, 2026. "The Trilogy" Conclusion
**WARNING, LONG READ**
Believe it or not, both of us slept pretty good on Thursday night. We woke up at 4:00 AM and both showered, and had the kids dropped off to their Grandma's by 5:15 AM! We were supposed to arrive at the surgery center at 6AM.
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When we got there, THESE little guys had been placed on the waiting benches outside by someone. I really hoped that this was truly a good sign for what was getting ready to happen!
The doors on the surgery center were locked, and it didn't take long for a heck of a line to start forming. I thought to myself "Jesus, what a business", as in no time flat there was a pretty good line going down the hall. All of these people in line with us were supposed to have outpatient procedures, just like us. The doors finally opened and we went in and signed in.
At 6:30, they called Holly and she came up to the desk and filled out a bunch of stuff, they took insurance information, and she was all checked in and ready to go. We were in the waiting room for a little bit, and around 7:20, they called Holly back to begin getting ready for the procedure. We were separated at this point, but I was still staying strong, and Holly was texting me telling me various different things.
Around 7:15 / 7:20, the nurse came out and got me, and I was able to go back and sit beside Holly's bed while we waited for the Anesthesiologist and the Doctor to come in. Seeing her in the gown and with the IV's and stuff hooked up, it started getting to me and I couldn't help but start to cry a little bit, I was starting to get nervous because I knew it wasn't going to be long. The Doctor finally came in and she talked with both of us, explained what her intention was for the procedure, but also told us worst case scenario she had to do a mini-laparotomy, at which she would keep her overnight and we would go home in the morning. I thanked her and told her that we both felt so lucky that she got to do the surgery because she delivered both of our children, and always takes such good care of Holly. For those who don't realize in my story, this is the doctor who saved Holly's life in 2022.
At 7:40, they wheeled Holly off in her gurney towards the OR. It was at this point that I headed back to waiting room, alone.
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I noticed THESE PHOTOS on the wall! One is of Skyline Drive, which is a local place I try and visit every Fall to watch the sun come up, and right beside it was a gorgeous autumn leaf. Again, I try to not get ahead of myself and try and not take it lightly, but considering finding the tiny Jesus 1st thing in the morning, and then these two pictures, I felt like it was almost as close as I could get to hearing / seeing God in action. The waiting was going to be long and hard, and I knew that this was now going to be the hardest part of this whole thing. The waiting room had this TV on the back wall that shows all that shows the status of all of the patients, each patient is given a number, so that your family/caregivers etc can track them through the entire procedure.
At 8:40 AM - I got a text that Holly's procedure had started, this was about a full HOUR after they first took her back. I left the waiting room and walked down to the food court to buy a coffee and begin my long waiting.
I knew it was going to be at least 2 hours, maybe more if they had to switch gears and switch from a laparoscopy to a mini laparotomy(regular surgery), so I knew at this point, there was nothing I could do except wait.
The hours ticked by. At around 10:30, I had to force myself to try and not let bad thoughts take over. I felt the hard pull of negative thoughts, and I started thinking of what it would be like having to stay overnight there again, and missing the kids, I mentally switched gears as one of my co-workers started texting me asking how things were going. FINALLY at around 11:00 AM, the surgeon called me on the phone and told me HOLLY WAS OK, that they were able to do it laparoscopy, and that we would be going home! I went out in the hall bathroom and got on my knees and thanked Jesus. But we weren't out of the woods yet.
With Holly moved into recovery, it shouldn't be very much longer until I would be with her and we could go home! Again, I never underestimated this day and I knew that it couldn't be that easy. And it wasn't. One of the nurses called me at 11:15 and told me that Holly woke up, but she had fallen back asleep again. I knew we were going to have to wait longer. At the ONE HOUR MARK of post-surgery, I walked up to the reception desk and asked the lady if I could please go back and see my wife, I promised I wouldn't interfere with the doctors or anything, I just wanted to see her. She called back there to get an update. I was not prepared for what I heard back:
She told me Holly had woke up again, but was in excruciating pain and had drifted off again as they had to give her pain medicine. This was around 12:00 noon. At this point, I was close to having a full breakdown in the lobby there, I had no family by my side. I made the decision that I had to get out of the hospital and just go home for a little bit, let my Dog out and try and decompress / calm down as I planned next steps. I was going to call Holly's mother to come down and sit with me, as she is a true expert in dealing with Hospitals. I got about a mile down the road and got a text from the hospital that they were coming out to get me. I was afraid, were they going to tell me Holly had to get admitted? I pulled over and called the nurse phone number and asked what was going on. HOLLY WAS OK AND READY TO GO HOME! Somehow, I guess the message relayed to the front desk was like playing Chinese telephone.
Holly HAD woken up, and told the nurse that she was having some pain, so they gave her Toradol through an IV, which quickly settled down her pain. When I got back to the surgery center parking lot, The nurse was by the door waiting for me, and led me inside to see Holly. She was awake and sitting up in a chair, fully dressed, and eating chips and talking to everyone. She looked like nothing had even happened to her! I thanked them all so much, we went through the post op / discharge instructions, which were surprisingly simple since they were able to do laparoscopy / keyhole surgery, and then we were on our way!
Driving home with her was the best feeling in the world. I think it even felt better than driving home when we had the babies, I hate to say that, but when I look back in hindsight, I think Surgery #1 with Abby was the most scary, this was
