Careful, That's My Mother in There

by Guest Writer: Casey Sylvestro

Four or Five martinis? Okay Ben, Dr. Sleep. One cosmo - two tops - and my mother is unfit to operate a stationary bicycle let alone have conversations concerning signing away her life and well-being. And judging by the drowsy droop of her eyelids and the baby sloth smile sliding over her lips, I’d say the 3rd martini effect you described has just kicked in.

Dr. Ben, the anesthesiologist, says the cocktail he has dripping into Mom’s IV will leave her with lowered inhibitions and drug-induced amnesia as well as a sense of peace. A nice improvement over the weepy, nauseous, muscle-tense anxiety she’s been feeling for the past two hours or so. Thank you, Ben.

When Tucker and I first walked into the hospital a couple of hours ago and saw our mom lying on her gurney, she started crying. She looked so teeny under all the blankets, and being skinny anyway, the hospital gowns kind of hung off her narrow shoulders. I didn’t like seeing my mom anxious and scared (after months of being strong and brave) and in pain from the stupid lymph node dye they’d injected into her right boob. I understand that they needed to see what they were removing to test for the possible spread of her breast cancer, but when I peeked through the door and saw my mom lying alone on the MRI table, clutching my Pink Bunny and looking weepy, I couldn’t help wondering why she would be left by herself. Where did that young and somewhat irritatingly perky nurse in the flowery scrubs go? Her company would have been an improvement upon being alone and scared on a chilly table, awaiting needles filled with dye.

After maybe thirty minutes, Mom came shuffling out of the room, confirming that it had not been much fun, and that the site of the injection was still burning. A sweet, older lady nurse arrived with the gurney and helped Mom gingerly lower herself onto it. Mom asked for more heated blankets to combat the shivers she’d started having to coincide with the headache she’d had all morning. We (Dad, Tucker, Mom’s friend, Carey, and I) fell into stride behind the gurney and marched down to Pre-Op.

Mom’s “room” was a little cubicle sectioned off with a flimsy wall and standard
hospital-y looking curtain. All those curtains look the same: that flowery, thin material that you find in doctors’ offices, school infirmaries, and nursing homes. If dentists had cubicle curtains, I bet they’d have them too.

Mom, of course, had to go to the bathroom. The nurse assigned to her (to us) came and escorted her to the ladies. Twiddling thumbs ensued. Hospital humor. Poking at and touching things we probably shouldn’t have; the hospital staff wouldn’t have had any reason to assume Sylvestros shouldn’t be trusted to behave appropriately in any given uncomfortable situation. Anything to lighten the tension, really.

When Mom came back, she looked slightly pinched, and confided that she’d had dry heaves. Luckily, (weirdly) it made her feel better and she settled down into her bed, looking tiny and exhausted, barely flinching when the nurse inserted an IV needle into the back of her left hand. Impressive. We waited for the surgeons and anesthesiologist to come and talk to us and answer any questions we might have.

Dr. Ben, the anesthesiologist, is the person I have been most anxious to meet. I insist that my Aunt Debby, a nurse practitioner, be there so she can look at any paperwork that may have medical language and fire any questions at Ben that Dad, Tucker and I hadn’t come up with. I don’t like having Mom sign a form that states she understands the risk of death from anesthesia, even though Debby assures me that all patients have to sign it before going under. I’ve heard stories about people having routine surgery and, because their anesthesiologist was a bonehead, they never opened their eyes again. I also read Coma last summer, a book about evil doctors purposely comatose-ing their patients. I’m not an elephant, but certain things you never forget. So I’ve been adamant about wanting to meet the man who was going to put my mother to sleep while the surgeons removed the cancer from her body. I wanted him to know that I would be very, very angry if everything did not go 100% textbook with my mother. I wanted to make sure he knew that I know where he works. I would find him. And I wanted him to see my face. And know that THAT face would haunt him if anything happened to my mother.

As it turns out, Ben may be my new favorite person in the whole world. A quick glance at his left hand tells me I can’t dream too far, but his blue eyes, sparkling behind his glasses, are tender, caring and incredibly warm and comforting. He reminds me, looks only, of Miranda’s boyfriend Steve on Sex and the City.

Dad, stroking Mom’s hair the entire time, keeps a running dialogue of medical questions about bodies and drugs and disease. Such a nerd. He catches my gaze as he says to Ben, “I love biology. I would have been a doctor if I hadn’t failed Chemistry.” (Dad would have been the BEST doctor. Talk about an amazing bedside manner.)

Ben’s sense of humor, and his clever way of integrating stories that illustrate how experienced, impassioned and skilled he is into his assurances of how fine my mother will be and what good hands she’s in, has won us all over. I think he likes us, too. He holds eye contact with whichever one of us he’s speaking to and makes sure to answer all of our questions thoroughly and in laymen’s terms. We all understand exactly what he’s telling us.

Well, most of us.

At this point, Mom’s enjoying the effects of her fifth martini. Actually, probably more like her seventh or eighth. The preparation of the operating room is taking longer than expected, so Ben gave her another dose of his fun cocktail. (I want some.) She’s slipping in and out of sleep, the occasional groggy wake-up making us chuckle with her utterances of “Am I drooling?” or “Oh. Why are you still here?” and “Where‘s Ben?” and (my favorite) “Gimme the Bunny.”

I’ve been crouched next to the gurney, holding her hand almost this whole time. The surprisingly firm grasp she has and the intermittent squeezes she gives my fingers makes me ask her if she’s awake, but no answer. Maybe not awake, but I like to think she’s aware and giving me squeezes on purpose.

The two surgeons who will be operating on my mother come in for a brief chat. Both are women. Both gorgeous. The surgeon, Dr. Philipson, who will be performing the double mastectomy, is a sunny, outdoorsy looking blond with a no-nonsense air about her. I find this extraordinarily comforting. I don’t want nonsense either. This is my most precious of people she will be cutting open and I want her to be very sure all the parts go back exactly where they should. I also want her to be certain she gets everything OUT that doesn’t belong inside my mother. So that vibe she’s giving off of “I know exactly what I’m doing, so let’s get the show on the road” is precisely what I would want from the surgeon taking care of my mother.

The plastic surgeon, Dr. Alton, who will be performing my Mom’s reconstruction, looks like she stepped off the pages of a Maxim Magazine. Also blond, hair pulled back into a knot, with pearls and carefully applied makeup, she looks fresh and powdery. Appropriate for a plastic surgeon, I think.

Together they describe what will be done while my mother is under, and assure us that they expect it to be easy and smooth. Nothing about what they describe sounds easy OR smooth, but not being a surgeon, I’m not going to question them.

Both surgeons march away to the operating room, and Ben slides back in place. It is showtime. Mom rouses enough to receive our kisses and hugs good luck (not goodbye). I’d been pretty good up to now, but hugging Mom sets the tears loose I’d held trapped behind my eyes all morning. Tucker’s holding it together, but he has that tight smile that I’ve seen before in not such fun or easy times, and he comes to stand next to me with his arm around my shoulders.

Dad has his summer tan, but I can still see the teary redness of his face as he’s kissing Mom - One. Two. Three. Four times before we watch her wheeled around the corner, and out of sight. She is clutching my Pink Bunny, much, I imagine, the same way I clutched Pink Bunny for comfort when I was two. Pink Bunny brought me comfort for bed; Pink Bunny’s bringing Mom comfort for bed. I never went to bed to have cancer cut out of me though. Hopefully, there’s still enough comforting power left in his love-softened felt and worn satin ears for that big a job.

Jamming his handkerchief into his eyes and puffing out a huge breath, Dad joins me and Tuck in our walk back to the waiting room.

“That was NOT fun.”

No, Dad, it was not.

Walking into the waiting room makes me dissolve into tears. Seeing all those expectant faces: Debby, my uncle Steve, Gram, and our friends Joanie and Carey. Almost everyone’s wearing pink, the Breast Cancer color. Steve’s pink button down shirt, Joanie’s pink button down, Deb’s pink cable knit Polo sweater. Pink bracelets, pink ribbons, Pink Bunny. Everyone settles in for the long wait. Ben said probably three and a half to four hours for the surgery and that no news is good news, so relax in the meantime. Yeah, okay, Ben.

Tucker’s googling on his iPhone, Joanie’s reading the book Mom wrote about our trip to Italy, Dad’s doing crossword puzzles (although I haven’t seen many squares filled in). The waiting room reminds me of an airport gate: rows of chairs, back to back and lining the wall, comfortable enough for short periods of time, but not for a lengthy sit.

Staring into the huge tropical fish tank on the wall, I notice a fat little red fish head down against the back wall. Dead. Honestly, people - this is a hospital waiting room. There shouldn’t even be a dead PLANT around. I comfort myself with the thought that everyone is too busy saving the lives of people, too busy tending to my mother, to worry about cleaning the fish tank.

Not being a stand-around crowd, we gather our bags and venture down to the hospital café after much debate of whether or not to leave the hospital and go get pizza. I’ll be damned if I am leaving my mother here and my sentiments win out.

On our way in to the cafe, who should show up but Carey’s son, Malcolm, and his wife, Liz. Last summer, my father was ordained online to marry Malcolm and Liz. As I hug Malcolm, whom I haven’t seen since I was maybe fourteen, and thank him for coming, he shrugs and says, “Well, we love your parents.”

Yeah. Who doesn’t?

Seated at the tables in the café, which to be honest really could be a far cheerier place with a little love (again, probably more important things to worry about in a hospital, but this is where my head goes), there are about a dozen conversations happening at once. Each one has the undertone of “I will talk about anything as long as it takes my attention away from what’s going on in Operating room 2C.”

Lisa and Lauren, my two cousins’ girlfriends, have joined us - both the most wonderful of girls and dearest of friends. They are a nice distraction, as is the food in front of me, until I notice that I have no cell phone service. Panic. Dad gave his cell number to the surgeons in case we needed to be reached. I call this to his attention and he bustles outside to check it. No news, but I am through with Pandini’s Café. Lisa and I grab our bags and head back up to the waiting room. We sit, adjusting ourselves in the oversized, snuggly chairs (Ha. Ha. Ha.) and Lisa eyes me down.

“You looked like you were ready to run out of there,” she says.

Yes, well, I may not be able to do the surgery myself, but I can be close by in case something happens.

It’s been one and a half hours. Maybe two. At least one more hour to go. Every sound of an opening door, every footstep down the hall causes my head to snap up. Mom’s was the last case of the day, so we really have the waiting room, if not the entire floor, to ourselves. Very quiet. Everyone trickles back in from the café and settles in with… whatever. Lisa and Lauren read celebrity gossip magazines. I diligently take notes for, well, this. And honestly, if one more Michael Jackson story comes on the TV, I’m going to throw my chair through it. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind throwing chairs around the room anyway. I feel like that might help alleviate the tightly wound ball of anxiety pressing to explode from my stomach.

My mother is a hallway away, stretched out on a table, asleep, while doctors root around inside her. No way do I want to be in there to see that, but I want to be in there to keep holding her hand. To make sure she still has her hold on Pink Bunny. To make sure she knows that she isn’t alone in there and that we’re all here waiting for her to wake up. I know she knows, but I want her to know. I want to be standing at Dr. Philipson’s elbow saying, “Did you get it all? Are you sure? CAREFUL please that is my MOTHER you’re mushing around there.”

I’d like to sit tapping my foot as Dr. Alton begins her reconstruction. “Remember, Mom said a smidge bigger. Are you SURE you understand exactly what she wants? Do you know how to not go huge? (Can you even order small boobs from a plastic surgeon?) And make them perky.” What good is going through all this if you don’t get great boobs after all?

I know these women are skilled surgeons. I know that. But I want them to know that they have my mother in there. And she is not just every other patient they’ve ever had. She is different. She is far more irreplaceable and important than anyone they have ever had on their respective tables. Same to you, Dr. Anesthesiologist Ben. Remember. I will haunt you.

Dr. Philipson walks in, startling all of us. Oh god. It’s way too soon. It’s been like two and a half hours. Dr. Ben had said no news is good news. I know it’s bad. She’s had a reaction to the anesthesia. Her lymph nodes have cancer. I think my heart stops as my friend Amanda’s face flashes through my head; she lost her mom to cancer. My roommate Karis flashes through my head; she lost her mom four years ago. I don’t want to be them. I don’t want to be them. I cannot be them. I am not a girl who can go through life without her mother, her best friend. No, no, no, no!

“Wow, are you all here for Lea? What an important lady!! Everything went smoothly. Dr. Alton is finishing up right now. Lymph nodes are negative.”

I love Dr. Philipson.

The sigh of relief around the room feels like a whoosh of air. My dad starts talking to Dr. Philipson as I cry - I am my mother’s daughter. I choose that moment to look at the fish tank. The chubby red fish is swimming around happily, scooping up stones from the bottom and spitting them out. Apparently, he was on the same sleep schedule as Mom.

Time to Get This Done

My toothbrush clatters into the sink and I fumble to retrieve it. For three days, my legs and feet have been numb and tingly and now my arms and hands feel the same way. Plus, I have a headache and a touch of nausea. I think I have M.S.

I gaze into my own sad eyes in the mirror above the sink and take a deep breath. Stop. Breast cancer today; I’ll worry about multiple sclerosis tomorrow.

But I hope I’m not sick. I won’t tell the doctors. I'm having this surgery today, no matter what.

Downstairs, Dave is nabbing a quick cup of coffee and toast in the kitchen while I get ready to go to the hospital. I hear him closing drawers and fishing around for utensils. The cats are squalling, and he’s talking quietly, so he must be soothing them and getting their breakfast as well. The toaster dings and I can smell the coffee, but I’m not hungry. I’m not allowed to eat even if I wanted to.

I slip off my PJ’s and give my breasts, this familiar body, a last wistful look. I have a moment of panic at the thought that I’ve made the wrong decision. Again, I stop myself. You don’t have a choice. No choice. For some reason, this comforts me. I step into the hot stream of the shower. Teeth clenched against the nausea, I rub my hands together with shampoo and lather up my hair. I won’t be able to shower again for a while.

My body has gone into siege mode. I am yearning for the anesthesiologist who will take the responsibility for my health and my spirits and my family’s spirits from me and let me sleep, unaware, for three hours.

I don’t envy my loved ones that vigil. My husband has told me how weird it will be for him. I have been with him during every other difficult wait – during his brother Steve’s surgery, during his father’s crises. Dave has said, “I’ll be hearing your voice. I’ll be expecting to see you across the room. And you won’t be there.”

Our adult children, Tucker and Casey, have come to be with us for the procedure, but they are still asleep. Dave and I were told that my prep-time at the hospital would be about an hour, so they’ll join us there later. As I towel off and dry my hair, one of the cats weaves into the room and brushes against my leg. He stretches, paws fully extended, in a sunny spot on the rug. I think of the joy of having the kids here, at home, in their beds. I wish this were a normal day, a normal visit.

After I slip into shorts, a tee-shirt, and flip-flops, I re-check the canvas bag of supplies I’m bringing to the hospital. Books, magazines, socks, toiletries and Pink Bunny.

About a week ago, I decided that Casey’s Pink Bunny, a floppy, flannel, tattered rabbit that spent his best years draped over my daughter’s arm from her infancy until she was about eight, would be a comfort to me on this day. I’d thought he might be in a trunk in the attic somewhere, but I found him on the top of her closet; he hadn’t gone too far after all. It made me smile just to see him. I held him to my nose to check for baby Casey scent, but he’d been washed too many times. He was part of her anyway, part of my life as a mother, and I wanted him with me.

It’s time to go.

After stashing my bag in the back of the car, I settle in and buckle up. Dave slides behind the wheel, but then, as usual, darts back into the house. He is gone. Still gone. Still gone. Oh, for god’s sake. Where is he? I get out of the car and march to the back door just as he re-emerges. “I can’t find the directions to the hospital,” he says.

“You just printed them out, “ I manage to bite off.

“I know. They’re on a folded piece of white paper.”

“Is it in your pocket? On the kitchen counter? On the dashboard?”

“No. I’ve looked everywhere.”

“Jeez, Dave. What’s it like to be you?”

“Hard sometimes. “ he says ruefully. “But I think I remember how to get there.”

“Oh, that’s just great.” I’m trying not to snarl because my dearest of men may be suffering more than I am. He has been so brave, never voicing a word of doubt as to the outcome of this surgery. But I know where my mind would be if our positions were reversed and I would be sick with fear at the possibility of losing him. So I am stone silent. Clenching. In annoyance and my efforts not to throw up. My head hurts and the back of my neck has tightened into a rigid bar. Like a junkie, I dream of release and that needle in my hand.

We arrive at the hospital without a glitch. While I sign in and complete paperwork at the reception desk, Dave calls Tucker and Casey to give them our status. He’s still on the phone when a lovely little woman with kind eyes and wispy white hair appears at a side door and calls, “Eleanor?”

I fish my book and Pink Bunny out of my bag. “Right here. And it’s ‘Lea’” I say automatically as I wave at my husband and rise to follow her.

“Wait,” says Dave, his head angled to hold the phone, his eyes desperate at my sudden departure. He reaches for my hand and I walk back to give him a quick peck on top of his head.

“Oh, you’ll see her again before the surgery,” my escort says pleasantly. Once we’ve left the waiting room, she adds, “My name is Louise and I’ll help you get organized. How do you feel?”

I don’t like to think of myself as a whiner, but I run through my lengthy list of afflictions, trying not to sound too obnoxious. I don’t mention my worry about M.S. by name.

“It’s the nerves,” Louise assures me. We turn down a corridor and she directs me into a narrow room lined with lockers and a low bench. She hands me two plastic bags, a pair of gray slippers, a robe and a johnny gown – the same blue diamond pattern on white that I’d worn for my colonoscopy last summer, I note. “Put your clothes in one bag, shoes in the other. The johnny’s worn open to the back. Once you’re dressed, let me know. I’ll be right outside.” She indicates a door to the right and says, “And there’s the loo, if you need it.”

I do.

I’m never one to pass up a toilet if offered, so I sink to the seat for a moment and then turn to my knees. Dry heaves. Yuck. But I feel better.

Louise’s voice comes, muffled, concerned, through the door. “Are you all right? There’s a pull cord on the wall if you need help.”

“I’m okay. I’ll be out in a sec.”

Deep breath. Deep breath. I am okay. I get to my feet, flush the toilet, and wash my hands. I straighten the johnny, pull on the thin robe and open the door.

I grab my book and Pink Bunny from the bench and Louise puts the bags with my clothing and flip flops into one of the lockers then leads me around a corner to the first in a row of glassed off cubicles. “Make yourself comfortable,” she says, settling me into an upholstered blue recliner. She unfolds several heated beige blankets and tucks them around me. After taking my blood pressure and temperature, she says, “A nurse will be here soon. Was that your husband with you?”

To my nod, she says, “I’ll get him for you.”

I’ve been holding on, waiting for her to leave, to indulge in some tears. They break through. “Oh, Dearie,” she says, just like my mom would have.

“I think I need to be alone,” I say. “Just for a bit.”

She leaves me with a gentle look of sympathy and I bury my face in Pink Bunny. What a relief to be here, finally. Sobbing, by myself, in this semi-dark room in my nest of blankets. My public face of two months no longer necessary. Today, I hand it over. Time to get this done.

A nurse with a clipboard comes in shortly with Dave close behind her. He smiles, with relief it seems, and gives me a one-armed hug so as not to block the nurse as she checks the plastic ID bracelet I received at check-in. He stands beside me, a hand on my shoulder as the nurse runs through a list of questions and says, “And you’ve had nothing to eat or drink since midnight?”

Shit. No one said anything about drinking. I’ve had boatloads of water so I wouldn’t be hungry, but I’m admitting nothing that might postpone this surgery.

“Nope,” I answer definitively.

Official business complete, Louise returns to lead me to a stretcher in a corridor. There is a flurry of yellow snapdragons and bustling cheer, incongruous in that stark setting. It’s Carey, my college roommate and dear friend, sprightly and perfume-scented with her so-short streaked hair and red-lipsticked mouth, eyebrows raised, smile-brilliant, as welcoming and happy as if she were greeting me at a restaurant for lunch.

Except I know how worried she is. Her public face outclasses mine. I’d seen the color drain from her skin when I told her my diagnosis. She has called me every day, after every appointment. “We are in this together,” she has said.

And then my kids are here, both with set, forced, “everything’s going to be fine” smiles, the same smile I’ve worn for a month now myself, and I dissolve, weeping on Pink Bunny.

Like an honor guard, Carey, Tucker, Casey and Dave walk alongside my stretcher as I am wheeled to radiology. They stand back as Gina, dark-eyed, tan and enthusiastic, steps in for Louise and pushes me over the threshold. The door closes slowly on my family, their faces remaining in the diminishing space between the door and the jam mouthing “Good luck! Love you!” until the crack disappears.

“This will burn,” says the doctor administering the dye. “We need to mark the path from which the sentinel node drains.” At least I think he says something like that; even without anesthesia, a fog has taken me. But I feel the burn and it hurts. Tears run down my cheeks and Gina squeezes my hand kindly, but says, “Oh, now. Be brave. No need for that.”

Excuse me, bitch?

Once the dye procedure is finished, I’m wheeled back to the hall. Steve, Deb, Dave’s mom and my friend Joan have joined the others. They line up beside my stretcher with words of love and encouragement. Steve leans over to hug me, then turns away. He had prostate surgery four years ago. This is hard for him; he is right there in my head with me.

I am wheeled somewhere else. I’ve lost track of corridors, cubicles and waiting rooms. The Team – my team – is waiting for me: the surgeon, Dr. Philipson, and the plastic surgeon, Dr. Alton. Strong, competent, blond, beautiful women in blue scrubs and confident smiles. In my mind, their feet are planted squarely, hands fisted on hips, capes flowing behind them. They will take care of me. I know they will.

Off to the side, leaning against a counter, is a guy with blue eyes wearing a shower cap. Only, it’s not a shower cap, he’s in scrubs. “Just waiting my turn,” he says with a grin.

It’s Ben, the anesthesiologist. The man I’ve been waiting for. He sits down beside me, close, face-to-face. And I don’t have to worry anymore.