Surgery in CR

Having surgery here in CR is not something that either Lane or I ever anticipated would need to happen but after almost a year of suffering with pain and low energy, we decided it was time to take care this. We wanted to wait until we got back in the states where we would feel more comfortable, but Lane's discomfort was out weighing the desire to be "comfortable"in the states.
So here we go....
We called the Dr. on his cell phone on Saturday. He asked for Lane's first name and told him to be at the clinic on Monday at 2pm for surgery. Simple as that. NO more questions.
The drive to the clinic was just over an hour and Lane spent the entire drive giving me instructions on how to access his life insurance policy and then continued to give me an over view on how to run our business, complete with passwords, people to call and account info for clients.....like I was writing this all down. What in the world?? was he trying to help me feel calm? By the time we got there I think I was more ready for the anesthesia than he was. This discussion really made HIM feel better though, so I just let him keep talking while I looked out the window at the strange cows and tried not to think about the "what ifs"
When we arrived at the clinic, next to the Pizza Hut....we were asked to fill out a form which consisted of his name, phone number and whether or not we were married.
Back to the room to put on the nice green nighty, complete with booties, and a cap. He was looking right cute.
Lane was not stressed at all until they made one request....."Senor, tiene que quitar su anillo de bodas por favor " what?? he has never taken off his wedding ring even once in all of our almost 23 years of marriage. (our anniversary is in 2 days) He suddenly had a look of panic. It was cute. I don't know if he was nervous that the nurses would try to pick up on him or that I would run off during the surgery. I assured him that neither was the case. It has been a little personal goal of Lane's to never remove his ring and has turned into a bit of a contest. He just lost the contest.
So then the nurse (who happens to be a guy) came in to start the IV. He had some cleansing fluid in an old bottle of body wash...the scent said "endless love"...guess it was a sign that him being without his ring for a few hours would not damage our relationship. We had a good laugh over that. The people here are very resourceful. I mean, why waste money on a nice container for your rubbing alcohol when an old container from your grandma's shower will work just as well? It is not like we are paying thousands of dollars for this anyway (wrong)

ok, so he is all hooked up and ready to go. The anesthesiologist looks legit and talks to us for a few minutes. keep in mind that no one in this place speaks a word of english so thank goodness Lane and I are both fluent in Spanish (wrong again)

He is wheeled across the hall with a kiss goodbye from me first and then I sit and nervously wait....looking up pictures of gall stones on my laptop and making myself nauseous.

Boom,. he is back in 2 hours. Very loopy and not looking so good. The Dr. brought in the container with the actual gall bladder...not nice, but interesting. AND a clear plastic bag containing 12 shiny large stones that were actually quite pretty. Crazy huh? Lane was in denial that those were actually IN him and he questioned whether or not the Dr. just went outside and gathered up some stones from the yard.

All went well, although he was not able to use a scope and do it laparoscopically...he said the stones were too large for that. They had to be a bit more invasive which will mean for a longer recovery for Lane, but at least we were happy that the problem was removed.

Lane was able to sleep pretty good most of the night. Woke up once wanting more pain medication but when I looked for the nurse, he was alseep in the room next door...looked really comfortable. What was I supposed to do?? I just told Lane to wait it out...that sounds so cruel huh? I just couldn't bring myself to go in there and shake this guy awake.....Lane fell back asleep so it was all fine.

Well, we are on our way home shortly. Made a call to the kids a few minutes ago and Lora was so excited that we get to bring the stones home. She said she has always wanted a gall stone and could she please have one for her birthday? That works great for me since we are having her party TONIGHT and I don't really have much for her yet. She is a strange little girl, but we love her.
K, gotta wrap it up and get my patient home. Thank you for all the prayers and love coming our way. We felt it.
I will be a good nurse at home, I promise. I will give him pain meds whenever he wants.

Another interesting story to add to our CR adventure huh? Let's hope we don't have any more adventures along these lines.