My dad went in for outpatient surgery on Friday. It's dicey because he has heart, lung, and other issues. But it had to be done.
I was nominated by mom to be the one person allowed to sit with him while they hook him up to oxygen from the wall, do the iv, etc, right before he's wheeled into the OR.
We'd met with the anesthesiologist a week before, and liked him, but a new person popped in to our tented bed area and announced that she would be doing the anesthesia. No explanation. Oooookaaay. She asks if it's general or local, we tell her that it sounded like they would start local and go general if necessary. She replies with a belly laugh, and says she'll go talk to the surgeon. She comes back and says it's local, and has dad initial a form. 3 minutes later she returns and say the doctor wants general, and has another form to initial.
Then the surgeon came in and wanted to add a something-ascopy to the morning fun, which dad hadn't been keen on before, but he says ok and intials another form. He says right now, if they said they were going to operate on his eye, he'd probably initial that too.
So I spend 10-15 minutes talking upbeat about my son and stuff that has nothing to do with what's going on.
Then a younger nurse-or-something comes in and it's time to go. She raised the rails on the bed, transferred the iv, and forgot to unhook the oxygen from between the wall and dad's nose. I had to say wait three time, progressively louder, before she stopped pulling.
I walk with them to the big double doors beyond which I'm forbidden. She hits the button on the wall and the doors don't open. She bangs it several times, not opening. She grabs the door itself and pulls, nothing moved. After a few more slams on the button she storms off to the nurses station, complaining loudly that the door won't move. As soon as she leaves, dad and I hear the door go click, so I push the button just as she's back in sight, and they open like they're made to or something. She asks what I did.
So off they go, and I go get 7 cups of coffee to wait with my mom and sister.
Epilogue: he did great! He's back home now and all is well. The only thing, a blood vessel in his eye popped! It's harmless, but it looks bad.
It just goes to show... nevermind. I have no idea. Don't sweat the little stuff, maybe. And don't make sarcastic cracks about your eye.