April 1st Halina was scheduled for surgery at 8:00 am but she was to be at the hospital for 5:00 am so they had time to get her all prepped. This of course meant we had to be up at 3:00 am to be out the door by 4:00 since we had about a 45 to 50 min drive from our house.
The night before Halina and I chatted in bed for the last time and I recorded some of the conversation for prosperity, by the time we were ready to turn in it was quite late but was worth it. Knowing that this was our last verbal conversation together I didn’t want it to end but she did need her rest so with much hesitation we both said good night and “I Love You (s)” and tried to get some sleep.
3:00 am came fast but we managed to get up, load ourselves along with Jake and Nick, our two sons, into the truck and off we went. The drive was pretty uneventful, at that time of morning there weren’t too many cars on this winding road, actually there were none at all until we hit Kelowna.
As we pulled into the main entrance of the hospital I was ready to hand over the truck to Jake as I was going to stay and wait for Halina to get out of surgery, but as we entered the hospital they had the Covid-19 screening in place which meant I was not able to accompany her or even wait inside the hospital. I was not pleased, I tried pleading with the nurse but to no avail. Disgruntled I kissed Halina and watched her walk alone down the hallway to the Pre-Op area and knew she was feeling scared and lonely.
I got back in the truck and we headed for home, about 20 km out I noticed the transmission light come on in the truck, this was new! I luckily found a pull out and wouldn’t you know it, yup a busted transmission line going to my cooler. Well this was not good, we were literally in the middle of “no taxi zone” and the three of us just looked at each other and said it was a good thing it didn’t happen on the way to the hospital.
CAA was called and a tow truck dispatched but was told because of Covid no one was allowed to travel in the truck, Hmmm, well this is when Jake started calling cab companies and after getting put on hold by the first we called he hung up, had a few choice words for the dispatch and called another. This time we got lucky and was told we had a taxi on the way and was about 40 min out.
Tow truck showed up and told us he wouldn’t leave until the taxi arrived which was extremely nice of him, a few min later we see this Tesla pull up in front of us and the doors open like a majestic eagle spreading his wings, we all looked at each other and Nick said, “Ya all the University people use this company because they want to ride in a Tesla.” Well shoot this was nice.
We chose a car rental place close by the garage where the truck was to be dropped off and I have to admit that the ride in the Tesla was very nice. About 10 min into the drive Halina calls, I didn’t want to tell her what happened because I didn’t want to stress her out so I played like nothing was wrong, not very nice I know but I would come clean eventually, especially when she noticed $1000 taken out of our account, oh ya, that was the cost to replace two hoses and a transmission cooler and pump.
We got the rental, drove home and waited for the call from the surgeon to tell me that the surgery went well. Now this was supposed to be about an 8 hour surgery and was told that they didn’t start until about noon but at 8:00 pm I still hadn’t heard, 9:00 pm still nothing, at 10:30 pm the call came in and with much relief it had been a success. I was told I was not able to visit but he was going to try and get me a special pass but until that happened the only thing I could do was to call the ICU in the morning and get an update.
That night was very strange going to bed alone and knowing what had just been done to my wife, sleep didn’t come easy that night and for many, many nights after.
Stay up to date with more posts that will follow Halina’s post surgery trials and tribulations.
