Day Two of Pre-Op Testing for Russel at Hinduja Hospital

Wednesday June 12, 2019

Bombay

Day Two of Pre-Op Testing for Russel at Hinduja Hospital 

Namaste from Bombay!

Today brought more tests for Russel and also a sense of where he stands in terms of his general health.

I woke up again at 6.30 am and after a shower and shampoo, I got dressed and went off to the hospital to relieve my Dad from night duty. The night seemed to have gone off better with Dad feeling less uncomfortably cold with a cardigan and under a warm blanket. Russel looks well and keeps wondering when he will be discharged.

More pre-op testing and several physicians came to see Russel and each of them examined him and gave their verdict. The 3-D echo-cardiogram was done today. It has been discovered that Russel has a slightly irregular heartbeat which is nothing to be alarmed about but it does pose some risk when undergoing surgery. He will be placed on blood thinners indefinitely once he is discharged and is back home. The cardiologist explained to me that his blood has simply thickened with age and that he runs the risk of getting blood clots sooner or later. Luckily, for the moment, they did not find any clots or blockages—so he was cleared for surgery for tomorrow. This whole pre-op testing rather reminds me of taking my car to the dealer to get routine servicing done by way of an oil change or tire rotation. And then, before I know it, they are telling me that I need to change the entire engine!

Russel continued to enjoy his meals today and was especially glad that the 2-D echo-cardiogram was done at his bedside and that he did not have to be wheeled away anywhere. I found out about meals and was able to go downstairs and get myself a vegetable chutney sandwich which I could take up to the ward where I ate part of it for lunch and part of it for tea—it was that big!     

Russel’s surgeon, Dr. Bhende, came to see him at his bedside this morning. He examined him carefully, took a good look at his leg, asked him to walk around the room, noticed that Russel does not put any load on his bad leg and then told Russel that he should not worry about anything at all—that he, the doctor will do all the worrying! Russel asked him a couple of questions as did I, and then he spoke to us, out of ear shot of Russel as we did not want him to worry about his situation. He explained to us exactly what he will be doing tomorrow and what he hopes to accomplish by the operation.

By the end of the day when Dad was required to sign the clearance form giving the surgical team the permission to carry out the surgery, they made it clear to him again that the irregular heart beat situation presents the very slight risk of blood clots during surgery. Of course, they will take every precaution to ensure that any such threats are addressed immediately. But Dad was a bit shaken up by this news and I had to try to assure him that the doctors and the hospital are covering all risks by making these factors known and that they are merely letting us know the worst case scenario.    

I spent a lot of the day on my laptop which I carry to the hospital. Despite a great amount of starts and stops, I managed to finish drafting the Acknowledgements page for my next book as well as the Table of Contents Page, the Author Questionnaire, the Author’s Bio Page, etc. for my publisher who emailed me requesting these be sent as soon as possible I also sent out a number of requests to my writer friends asking them for endorsement blurbs for the back jacket of my book. The majority of them agreed to do so at once and asked me to send them the materials that will help them put it all down. This kept me on the email for ages—good job there is wifi here at the hospital. However, I had a few more messages that I had to send out urgently, which I thought I would do after I reached home.

Dad came back to the hospital at about 7.30 pm. He is disappointed (as are a lot of cricket fans) that the Cricket World Cup is such a frequent washout with so much rain in England at the moment. Although he is home during the day (when I do hospital duty), he is really unable to enjoy the matches. Russel does have his own personal TV set here in the hospital—so Dad is able to catch the daily news on his favorite news channels at night. I am really so grateful for these little mercies which are making life much easier for us during this stressful time.

I left after Russel’s dinner arrived and I served him and watched him enjoy it. Then, I ran down to the pantry to pick up a vegetable sandwich for Dad which he would eat for dinner. I delivered it to him and left for my place intending to walk the 20 minutes to my studio. However, it suddenly came crashing down in sheets and although I had a giant umbrella, I hailed a passing rickshaw and jumped into it.

Once home, I warmed up my dinner immediately: chicken curry, mince and beans with a chapatti and another mango for dinner—so good! I watched Murder City while eating and then had a long chat with Llew who was working from home today. As tomorrow is Russel’s scheduled surgery, I doubt I shall fall asleep easily. I did some more emailing and other work on my laptop and then I fell off to sleep.

Until tomorrow…