(Not) having fun at the VA

(Not) having fun at the VA | Ecency

Gateway Arch

Gammy had back surgery yesterday and it was ordeal. Not the surgery, per se, but the things leading up to it.

Jefferson Barracks VA

We had to go Monday to the drive-thru COVID test at Jefferson Barracks VA. They were supposed to send the sample to John Cochran VAMC.

Jefferson Barracks is the old VA hospital. Everything there is outpatient as far as I know. It is closer to where we live than John Cochran.

The lab is at John Cochran as well as everything surgical.

John Cochran VAMC

We were at Cochran a little before 6 AM yesterday. After we checked in we took a seat and waited.

And waited.

Finally about 9 AM, Gammy went to check to see when she would be seen.

They had lost her sample for the test. Why didn't they tell us that 3 hours ago?

Gammy goes downstairs and takes the test again. She came back up to the waiting area and said that it would be an hour before the results came back. So we waited.

They finally called her back about 11 AM. She went in to surgery at 11:30.

I talked to a nurse and then the doctor at 2 PM. She had fared well and would be moved to ICU after recovery.

I had class last night and she had insisted that I not miss class, so I left the hospital about 3 PM.

She called me about 5 PM yesterday evening and we talked briefly. I told her that I'd call the nurses station about noon to find out when they'd be releasing her.

This morning I went to work planning on working most of the day.

Gammy called me at 10 and I went to pick her up.

She had on a back brace and could not quite get comfortable in the truck. We had to stop once on the way home for her to get out and walk around some.

After getting in, we got her settled on our futon and she passed out from exhaustion soon after.

I'm taking tomorrow and Friday off to make sure she can do the things on her own before I go back to work.

We're hoping that in a few weeks she'll be able to do things comfortably that she hasn't been able to do in a long while.