{"id":434,"date":"2006-06-27T17:26:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-27T17:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mercurystate.wordpress.com\/2006\/06\/27\/soft-spot\/"},"modified":"2008-09-09T22:16:51","modified_gmt":"2008-09-10T02:16:51","slug":"soft-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seekingsol.com\/soft-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"soft spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Evening update follows the original post.)<\/span><\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The surgeon\u2019s assistant finishes his explanation of the procedure and asks, \u201cSo do you have any final questions, concerns or requests?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYea. My family knows me for having a tough heart and I\u2019m concerned about what you\u2019re going to do to it. Don\u2019t put any soft spots in my heart, okay?!\u201d<\/p>\n

The doctor cocks his head quizzically as the joke threatens to make a dash over his head. The rest of the room, however, snickers, giggles and laughs loud enough to create the first echo of a ruckus that will later ignite the complaint of a neighbor and messenger nurse to \u201ckeep it down.\u201d But if there\u2019s one thing my father is known for not doing, it\u2019s \u201ckeeping it down.\u201d Not even the six valium he swallowed from the small paper cup can curb the adjective that the nursing staff have attached to the name and fame of the patient in Rm. 634; \u201cornery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having been prodded and poked every hour throughout the night to gauge insulin levels, monitor rates, and prep the surgery, he hasn\u2019t been allowed a sequential thirty minutes to sleep. My father looks gray and frail in the pale hospital gown and narrow bed, but the fiery resiliency of his spirit flares as he mumbles with eyes half closed to the 200 lb male attending nurse, \u201cLet\u2019s go out to the parking lot. I\u2019m going to kick your ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audience (my family) goes off task and bursts out laughing again; It\u2019s hardly the first time. While other waiting families clutch tissues and pat swollen eyes, my family turns a white laminated \u201cheart healthy\u201d menu around and proceeds to play \u201chang man\u201d using the medical terms from the \u201cGuide To Heart Patient Recovery.\u201d The stick man is pathetically underdeveloped as my sister-in-law just recently replaced \u201cMrs.\u201d with \u201cDr.\u201d and I only get a head and one \u201cX\u2019ed\u201d out eye before \u201cIncentive Spirometer!\u201d is correctly shouted out. But it\u2019s during our tour of the CRU (Cardiac Recovery Unit) that we really begin to appreciate having a doctor in the family. While watching a myriad of machines assisting with the breathing, beating and bodily functioning of a recent patient yet to awaken, my sister-in-law swiftly cuts across our group to position my brother on the ground upon recognition that the color of his skin (green) was a go-light indicating that\u2019d he was on his way to finding a much quicker and less conscious way to the floor. We find the space for seriousness when after reclaiming his normal color we agree to my brother\u2019s request to, \u201cnot let Dad know that I *almost* fainted in the CRU until AFTER the surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both of my father\u2019s parents died while he was a still a young child. Raised an orphan, he dedicated 67 years to creating the family he never had while growing up. Right before my dad is wheeled through the double doors, his four children and wife pat his shoulder and whisper words of support and love. And I feel the recognition of his ultimate life achievement warm him.<\/p>\n

In the waiting room I fall asleep. I dream of my dad. We are outside of the hospital and we\u2019re surrounded by the dark and crisp freshness of a day before sunrise. He looks confused and stares through the dark to the horizon. \u201cDad, aren\u2019t you supposed to be in the hospital?\u201d I ask. He is completely calm. But he doesn\u2019t answer my question. He just keeps watching the horizon. And it\u2019s apparent that he hasn\u2019t decided on the answer to that question yet.<\/p>\n

I wake up.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now 9:45am. The nurse just stopped by and told us that my father is on bypass and both his heart and lungs are officially on their first vacation in life from beating and breathing. Our own hearts skip as we too hold our breath – and wait.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

4:30pm<\/p>\n

One visitor is allowed every two hours for 10 minutes in the CRU.<\/p>\n

My father is awake and as I come closer he rolls his eyes, groans and chuckles.<\/p>\n

The attending nurse says, “You know. He’s been giving me a hell of a time.”<\/p>\n

I try to tame my laugh noticing that my father’s recently cut chest plate is heaving up and down in a motion only made possible by a sizable shot of morphine.<\/p>\n

The nurse continues, “but you can give him some ice cubes if he’s nice to you.”<\/p>\n

I pick up the plastic cup and select a few of the larger ice cubes and with a spoon move towards the parched lips of my dehydrated father.<\/p>\n

He hesitates only long enough to say, just loud enough for the nurse to hear, “got any vodka for this ice?!”<\/p>\n

He doesn’t drink. And he won’t remember this conversation.<\/p>\n

But we all laugh out loud.<\/p>\n

And the question in my morning’s dream is answered.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

———————————————
\n*sol bows her “namaste” and gratitude to World Nomads Travel Insurance<\/a>, ThinkHost<\/a> and MercuryFrog<\/a> for their ever-supporting roles in the realization of her dream.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Evening update follows the original post.) ***** The surgeon\u2019s assistant finishes his explanation of the procedure and asks, \u201cSo do you have any final questions, concerns or requests?\u201d \u201cYea. My family knows me for having… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,71,49],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nsoft spot - Christina Rivera<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seekingsol.com\/soft-spot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"soft spot - Christina Rivera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Evening update follows the original post.) ***** The surgeon\u2019s assistant finishes his explanation of the procedure and asks, \u201cSo do you have any final questions, concerns or requests?\u201d \u201cYea. My family knows me for having... 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