Did you read my post about my alarm not going off the day of transplant? Yeah, I almost slept through the transplant appointment.
Wednesday night, although you'd think I would be anxious and have a hard time sleeping (and I did tell my husband, "It feels like Christmas Eve, hard to go to sleep!"), I pretty much fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The hotel room had no clock in it, which I found odd. I thought about requesting a wake up call, but decided to just set my phone alarm instead, which I often do. I set it for 4:45, so we could be at the hospital (just a few blocks away) by 5:30. We had everything but the phone chargers and toothbrushes packed up before we went to bed.
I next woke up out of surgery, feeling really good but needing to pee. I kept pushing my call button, waiting for the nurse to come so I could get up to go to the bathroom. I felt great for just coming out of surgery, but geez the nurse was being slow! Finally, I reaching for the button again and I REALLY woke up.
The room was really dark, so I had no idea what time it was. I grabbed my phone and looked at it, and it said 5:28am. 5:28!!!!! I smacked my husband, yelled, "We gotta go! We gotta go! It's 5:30!" and a lot of swear words.
All that was running through my head was, "They're going to think I changed my mind! They're going to cancel the transplant!"
I grabbed my hospital papers and called the after-hours number, nearly crying, and explained to the operator that I was going to be late but I was on my way! She transferred me up to the Day of Surgery Admissions desk, where I explained again that I WAS coming, I would just be late. They thanked me for letting them know and said they'd see me soon.
We grabbed all our stuff (I did get to go pee, but did not brush my teeth...) and ran downstairs to the front desk. We were paying cash for our room, and we weren't sure if my husband would be staying another night or if he'd get a spot in the hospital's discounted on-site 'hotel', but I didn't want to go through all the explanation so I just told them I needed to pay for another night.
Of course the manager was super slow. Or at least seemed that way in the moment. "Since you're paying cash, tell ya what, I'll give you a better deal for tonight." Which was great, but then took a lifetime for him to change the rate in the computer.
And then I paid him. And he had to count back the change to me, each coin, each bill, one by one, as slow as possible. I'm about to yell at him to just hurry the f*ck up, but I stay patient.
I run out to the car where my husband is waiting, and we take off for the hospital. The wrong way. Luckily my husband catches it quickly (I told him the wrong direction), and we get turned around. All I'm thinking is "What kind of asshole sleeps in on transplant day?!" and how everyone is going to be waiting for me and I'm going to make everything delayed and it's all horrible...
We get to the hospital, and it's only 5:50. We rush up to admissions and I say apologetically, "It's me, I called in, we're here, sorry!" The lady looks me up in the computer, gives me a pager, and tells me to have a seat in the waiting room.
So then we waited. And I started feeling better because if if they were all waiting on me and if I ruined everything I wouldn't be in the waiting room.
I was sure my blood pressure would be high when they took me back, but it was "perfect" according to the nurse.
Between 5:50 when we got to the hospital and 7:15 when they took me to the OR, we spent more time waiting than we did being seen. So I may have overreacted a bit. But I still felt like an asshole.
I still haven't figured out why the alarm didn't go off, because it was still set. (And I did NOT hit snooze.)
Moral of the story: Request a wake up call. And set five alarms.
Wednesday night, although you'd think I would be anxious and have a hard time sleeping (and I did tell my husband, "It feels like Christmas Eve, hard to go to sleep!"), I pretty much fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The hotel room had no clock in it, which I found odd. I thought about requesting a wake up call, but decided to just set my phone alarm instead, which I often do. I set it for 4:45, so we could be at the hospital (just a few blocks away) by 5:30. We had everything but the phone chargers and toothbrushes packed up before we went to bed.
I next woke up out of surgery, feeling really good but needing to pee. I kept pushing my call button, waiting for the nurse to come so I could get up to go to the bathroom. I felt great for just coming out of surgery, but geez the nurse was being slow! Finally, I reaching for the button again and I REALLY woke up.
The room was really dark, so I had no idea what time it was. I grabbed my phone and looked at it, and it said 5:28am. 5:28!!!!! I smacked my husband, yelled, "We gotta go! We gotta go! It's 5:30!" and a lot of swear words.
All that was running through my head was, "They're going to think I changed my mind! They're going to cancel the transplant!"
I grabbed my hospital papers and called the after-hours number, nearly crying, and explained to the operator that I was going to be late but I was on my way! She transferred me up to the Day of Surgery Admissions desk, where I explained again that I WAS coming, I would just be late. They thanked me for letting them know and said they'd see me soon.
We grabbed all our stuff (I did get to go pee, but did not brush my teeth...) and ran downstairs to the front desk. We were paying cash for our room, and we weren't sure if my husband would be staying another night or if he'd get a spot in the hospital's discounted on-site 'hotel', but I didn't want to go through all the explanation so I just told them I needed to pay for another night.
Of course the manager was super slow. Or at least seemed that way in the moment. "Since you're paying cash, tell ya what, I'll give you a better deal for tonight." Which was great, but then took a lifetime for him to change the rate in the computer.
And then I paid him. And he had to count back the change to me, each coin, each bill, one by one, as slow as possible. I'm about to yell at him to just hurry the f*ck up, but I stay patient.
I run out to the car where my husband is waiting, and we take off for the hospital. The wrong way. Luckily my husband catches it quickly (I told him the wrong direction), and we get turned around. All I'm thinking is "What kind of asshole sleeps in on transplant day?!" and how everyone is going to be waiting for me and I'm going to make everything delayed and it's all horrible...
We get to the hospital, and it's only 5:50. We rush up to admissions and I say apologetically, "It's me, I called in, we're here, sorry!" The lady looks me up in the computer, gives me a pager, and tells me to have a seat in the waiting room.
So then we waited. And I started feeling better because if if they were all waiting on me and if I ruined everything I wouldn't be in the waiting room.
I was sure my blood pressure would be high when they took me back, but it was "perfect" according to the nurse.
Between 5:50 when we got to the hospital and 7:15 when they took me to the OR, we spent more time waiting than we did being seen. So I may have overreacted a bit. But I still felt like an asshole.
I still haven't figured out why the alarm didn't go off, because it was still set. (And I did NOT hit snooze.)
Moral of the story: Request a wake up call. And set five alarms.
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