The Middle Part

    They didn't bring me dinner in the hospital because there was a slim chance I could go for surgery in the morning. No one was sure because of Hurricane Irma. Once it got late enough that the staff knew I wasn't on the schedule for Sunday, my nurse scrounged up some chicken noodle soup in a styrofoam cup and a very plain sliced turkey sandwich in one of those clear plastic triangular packages. Hunger truly being the best sauce, I savored every bite.
     There was a hurricane out there somewhere, but up on the seventh floor in that sturdy building, there was little sign of a storm. My bed faced away from the window, so I couldn't watch the clouds, or even take it very seriously when they rolled my bed as far from the window as possible because of a tornado warning. My survival instincts fixed instead on getting somebody in here with a bedpan stat. (I never actually used the term "stat," but it sounds ever so imperative.) Imperative was the word of the night, since I'd been forbidden to drag myself to the bathroom. This is distressing to a person who has given birth four times, is under major stress, and is... old. So, sorry, adoring public, but that was my focus while Irma did her worst outside.
       If I'd been ambulatory, I might have seen the staffers of all kinds that I later heard were bunking down in offices and break rooms to make sure there would be enough nurses and techs and transport people to run the place the next day. Did I mention how thankful I am for modern medicine? And extra thankful for the people who do things like that to make sure little old me is taken care of? I told one of the nurses, "You make me feel like I'm the only person in the hospital." She smiled. "That's the goal," she said. I learned later that a staffer or two had been perfectly happy to stay where electricity was guaranteed, as opposed to their hot, dark homes. I don't care. They're still noble.

    Sunday morning, I was still on the no-food list, so nobody brought breakfast.

There was mention of oatmeal, but the promise was washed away with the storm. Fortunately, there was plenty of oxycodone. I seem to remember some sort of fairly edible lunch. Then, good news: no dinner for you. Because you're on the list for surgery on Monday. After non-breakfast, the surgeon came in and initialed my left leg with a marker. It was on.
     I wish I had more to say about the operation, but all that registered was being rolled to the surgery staging area, where the most interesting sight was the man across the way. He had a beard like you can't imagine: rolling masses of variegated gray surging across his chest from shoulder to shoulder, Lear's limerick brought to life. "There once was a man with a beard/ who said, 'It is just as I feared./ Two owls and a hen/ four larks and a wren/ have all built their nests in my beard.'" Gotta love the classics. Then the nice anesthetist came along and poured some oblivion into my IV. Next thing I knew, I was back in my room with two screws in the kneecap and a couple of wires stretched over it to keep it in place.
     I was starving. I told the nurse that back in my baby-having days, we got apples and freshly baked cookies in this very same hospital. She brought me some more chicken noodle soup in a styrofoam cup and a turkey sandwich in a clear plastic package. And a packet of mayo. When darling daughter's family came to visit later that afternoon, the nurse brought in a stack of graham crackers. So that's all right. The little guys wrote and drew adorable get-well notes on construction paper. That's a whole lot better.