The Big Day, Part 1

Wednesday morning, June 6, 2012, Allison’s house: I show up at 8:30 with my kids, Finnegan and Tallulah, hoping to get some candid, informal, day-of-surgery footage. Allie’s up and dressed, as is her husband, Joe, and their 5-year-old daughter, Joy. A relatively normal morning unfolds. The three little ones stay occupied with each other as I get the camera out and plugged in. My parents arrive and begin discussing the final things that need to get taken care of before Allison goes in for surgery – a few bills to mail, some loose ends to tie up from the kids’ school year. Allie starts a new pot of coffee. Her three boys – Kyle, Hayden, and Grant – wake up and join us, one by one.

At 9:50, we head out. I ride with Allie and Joe, Misha follows in her car. The Hospital at Westlake Medical Center is on the west side of town, at the intersection of Bee Cave Road and Loop 360, which in my mind is where the hill country goes from a crawl to a full sprint. The rocky hills are covered by limestone and scraggly, shrubby live oaks – squat trees holding onto what little topsoil the flashfloods haven’t wash away.

The medical complex is extensive and sprawling, but mostly made up of clusters of low-lying, limestone buildings. It is the opposite of institutional, and looking at it from the street, you’d never guess there was anything more than dentists and physical therapists tucked into the shady recesses. We wind around until we find building L, park, and look for the entrance, which is far from obvious. On the third floor, we finally find registration, but are turned away. Allie and Joe didn’t bring their insurance card. (Many thoughts on our healthcare system could be inserted here.) Misha drives to the house to get it.

We wait in waiting room. It’s 10:20 by the time she returns and 11 by the time Allison is taken back for prep.

I get to go with Allison because I’m her sister, but also because, as I explain to the nurse, I’m shooting video for a documentary. I assure her that I’m not a filmmaker (carrying only a small, Canon dv recorder, this is not a hard thing to do). She’s still skeptical, so I promise not to get her in the frame. I shoot a little, but mostly I keep Allison company and translate when she doesn’t understand a question.

Allison in pre-o

Paper robe, open to the back; her clothes and shoes in this plastic bag; lie down in the bed. IV in and blood pressure recorded; Are you allergic to any medications? (a question she ends up being asked three or four times by the time she goes in for surgery). The nurse is in and out a few times before the anesthesiologist arrives.

The anesthesiologist arrives, introduces himself, and begins looking over her file. He asks a few questions, and then says, And it's the left ear that's receiving the implant, correct? I tell him that no, it's the right ear, and then watch him turn a poorly written R into an unquestionable R. I turn and tell Allison what just transpired, and we both smile nervously and laugh as he starts to explain all the medications Allison will get.

Anesthesiologist, Dr. Larry Armstrong

First, something to make her sleepy, given through her IV. Then the general anesthesia to knock her out, also through the IV. She’ll be intubated to help her lungs keep working, and through this tube she’ll breath a mixture of oxygen and something to help keep her asleep. During surgery, through her IV, she’ll get two medications to help with nausea as well as a narcotic for pain. Dr. Slater will also numb the area behind her right ear with a local anesthesia. Oh, one more thing. Behind your left ear you’ll get a small patch to help with nausea, the anesthesiologist says, the same thing people take for motion sickness. You can keep it on for up to three days, but when you take it off, make sure you wash your hands immediately. He laughs. Otherwise, if the medication gets in your eyes, your pupils will dilate completely and should you end up in an emergency room, they’ll think something serious is going on in your brain.

Joe comes back to meet us. It’s noon. Misha stays in the waiting room. We wait. And wait. And wait. At 12:30, Joe reminds me that her surgery was originally scheduled for 1:45 and suggests that perhaps the nurses don’t know her surgery was changed to noon. I go to the nurses’ station and ask. Dr. Slater is running a little late, one of them says. It will be twenty minutes, at least, from the time his current patient comes out.

I relay the news and Allison asks, rhetorically, Then why did we have to get here so damn early? Because they wanted you here, Joe says. 

I decide to change places with Misha so she can see Allie once more before she goes in, but by the time I get to the waiting room, I’ve already gotten a text from Joe: time to go. It’s 12:58. I tell Misha to go back to the double doors that say Hospital Personnel Only, and follow the foot print stickers on the floor. Allison will be on the left.

Dr. Patrick Slater, right before surgery