October 31st, 2022

I can hear you thinking....".a Jury Summons and a Hospital Bracelet.  Hmmmm, strange combo" And I completely agree.  I will explain the connection momentarily.  Bear with me, it will be long and confusing.

First I wanted to thank everyone for all of their positive thoughts and good wishes.  Made it through the third and hopefully final surgery just fine.  Right now it's just a matter of time and healing which requires patience on my part.  And unfortunately patience is not something I have in the great volumes necessary.  (which further translates to, Poor Tim!)

Now to the story.

My most recent surgery date was sort of Sprung on me unexpectedly. I mean I knew that would be coming, just not as quickly as it did.  Oh I was glad to have it over and done with, no question there,  but what literally happened was I went to my regular follow up doc appointment with my surgeon as I'd been doing since surgery #2 on  Thursday the 13th.  At the end of this appointment we were told that I was ready for the last surgery and it would be on one of the following dates:  October 24, November 10 or December 12.  Apparently, there is a lot of competition for the operating rooms!  Then we were told that we would hear which of those dates would be assigned to me by telephone the next day.

The next day, a Friday, passed with no phone call so the following Monday, I called the doctor office.  I learned, as of that phone call, that my surgical date would be October 24th which was one week from that day.  Short notice. One very short week away.  Ok. I took a deep breathe and said, ok I can do that.  Then I was told that I also needed to come BACK to the doc office for my pre-op appointment on Tuesday which was the very next day. What?  Wasn't I just there?  Couldn't we have called the visit 4 days ago the pre-op visit?  Apparently not.   Tim scrambled to rearrange his work schedule to get me there but he made it happen.  Ok, all set.  We felt that we were good to go.  Managed to attend the Pre-op visit on Tuesday.  Now I'm ready to go. Done and done, right?  Well except for the necessary paperwork and phone calls from the hospital which would happen on Wednesday, the next day.

On Wednesday, I did, indeed get a phone call from the hospital very bright and early.  In fact it was 8:00am. Luckily we are early risers.  It was a long and involved phone call which mostly revolved around my pre-registration wherein I was asked everything from my height and weight (which are normally state secrets) to a very thorough medical history, my religious affiliation, insurance, significant other's information and the query as to with which gender I prefer to identify.  Ok. It took awhile, but It was done.  Or so I thought.  Nope. At  the end of the call I learn that I will be getting yet another call the next day, Thursday, from another department at the hospital.  And I'm thinking, "More questions? You already know more about me than most people!"

Ok fine.  But at this point, I realize that there are a lot of other things on my calendar that I need to now rearrange.  Two different doctor appointments, a visit to my hairdresser and, oh yeah, jury duty. Dang!.  How does a person do that?  First I dealt with the things I felt confident about: two docs and a hairdresser.  Ok. Done.  Now the Jury Duty Notification.

I was booked to appear in Sarasota for Jury Duty on the 25th of October which is one day AFTER surgery.  Nope, that isn't going to happen.  How do I do this?  Well I read very carefully through the Jury Summons and learned that there is a part that can be filled out, torn off and mailed back for people that wish to be excused or deferred.  I definitely wish to be excused, thank you very much and filled out the form.  Then I notice that the bottom of the form indicates that this form must be received 5 working days before the required date of attendance.    I looked at my calendar.  This was Wednesday the 19th and it will only be collected and perhaps sorted on this day. So I cannot count that day.  I was supposed to be there on Tuesday the 25th.  In the middle there is a Friday and Saturday.  Leaving only 4 working days.  This is not going to arrive in time. Ratz.

There must be another way. I popped the form in the mailbox anyway with fingers crossed but there HAD to  be an alternate route. I was certain that I wasn't the first person on the planet to come across a situation like this.  In carefully re-re-reading the summons,  I realized that there was an email address provided.  YES!  I will try that.  I carefully crafted a succinct but polite explanation of why I would be unable to accept their kind invitation to participate as a member of the jury, crossed my fingers and hit send.  Thought that was the end of that particular story but nope.

Thursday I did yet another phone call via the hospital whereupon I learned that I had to run out that very day to have blood work done AND that there are prescriptions that have been called in for me that must be picked up prior to surgery as well as recommended post-surgical supplies.  Managed to zoom out and get those chores done as well.  So far, I'm thinking,  I am kind of impressed that in such a short period of time, we are ON this.  We Rock!

Friday, to my great surprise, I got an email response from the Court regarding my email requesting an excused absence.  It was equally polite and succinct telling me that they received my request and that it would be put before the judge for the judge's decisions AND that they would let me know what the judge decided.  What?

Sorry, no.  Unless the judge is also my surgeon, the judge does not get to decide this.  I do not have time for this nonsense.  I cannot worry about this. I have things to do!  Joy came up to keep me glued together and distracted on Friday for a bit and she completely agreed with me.  

Saturday and Sunday were spent Cleaning  with a capital C, doing laundry, sterilizing the bathroom, cooking ahead, shopping ahead and making sure everything that could possibly be ready, was ready.  We had a surprise and absolutely lovely Minock Visit on Sunday which further helped to glue me together emotionally and distract me from surgery.

Monday, Surgery Day, I did everything I was supposed to do and nothing I wasn't supposed to do, before we left the house.  Jury Duty was the Furthest Thing from My Mind!  The hospital by the way, Sarasota Memorial, was lovely.  Very New and Modern And Contemporary. I felt as if I was on a movie set.  Every single person I met was pleasant and professional and exactly what you want them to be.   After surgery, is a blur.  The next day, also a blur.  The rest of the week slowly settled into focus and by, I think, Wednesday or Thursday, I started catching up on things, returning phone calls and texts and emails. 

Which is when I discovered another email from the Court.  It seems that all Jurors were dismissed.  (Perhaps the case was settled out of court?)  So I guess I won't be arrested for not showing up to court.  Actually I have no idea what happens to a person who doesn't show up to jury duty.  Do you?  I'm kind of afraid to google it for fear that anyone tracking my activity will flag it as suspicious.

ANYWAY, it's been a  busy and crazy couple of weeks and now things have  finally settled down a bit.  Yes there are more post-op appointments to come (the first one Wednesday after which perhaps I can take a normal shower again...yay!).  And healing is happening, little by little, step by step, Very SLOWLY.  Dang.

Shockingly Slowly.  I cannot believe how quickly I tire out!  But as Joy pointed out to me because I was so dumb I couldn't figure this out by myself,   Before the 1st surgery in March, I was 100% me.  After that first one, I had time to bounce back to maybe 90%.  And then there was the 2nd surgery in July, a very big, traumatic, huge, eventful surgery. And between July and October  I healed and returned to perhaps 70-75% of my normal self.  So here we are following this last  surgery and I'm maybe 50% of my normal?  Which troubled me until it was pointed out that I didn't start at 100.  I started at 70.  It's going to take some time and a lot a patience to get back to my normal.  BUT get there I will!   Little by little, day by day, tiny progress by tiny progress I will be me once again.

My goal is New Years Day.  I would really like to start 2023 as fully me once again!  I think that's reasonable, don't you?

Anyway, so that's the connection between Jury Duty and A Surgery Date and how that works.  It was interesting and I learned a thing or two.  Both good things.  And of course the best part which is that I'm on my way to finally FINALLY putting this  entire chapter in my rear view mirror.  And that is a VERY good thing!  

So you are now all caught up on what's been happening here.  How about you guys?  What's new with you?  I'm all ears, eager to hear what's been going on with you!

And I just realized...Happy Halloween!