Uncertainty is a tool of the devil

Our instructions are to call Stanford before 6PM to confirm Mary's requested arrival time and scheduled surgery time. We have done that, only to learn that she has been bumped from the first surgery of the day to "first on the waiting list." Uncertainty, on the eve of this rather major life event, is absolutely the tool of the devil.

Now, we don't know what "first on the waiting list" means. It may be they only firmly schedule the first surgery in each OR and everyone after that 'waits'. Or, it may mean that some life threatening surgery has bumped her--after all, that happened on the day of the gall bladder surgery and her 7AM start was postponed by several hours. Or, it means someone created a snafu in the scheduling process and we're now suffering from that.

The problem, of course, is that uncertainty causes tension. Mary is clearly suffering from this lack of certainty right now.

We are now waiting for a phone call from the "master of the schedule" who sounds a bit like an air traffic controller. I can imagine a conversation about his job would go something like this: You got your patients stacked on the left, surgeons circling on the right, anesthesiologists lined up in front of you, OR tables laid out below you like airport runways and surgical nursing teams standing by like ground crews waiting for an airliner. My job is to get the right patient on the right OR table with the right surgeon, anesthesiologist and surgical nursing team all at the right time. It ain't easy."

No, I am sure his job is not easy. And, frankly, right now, I don't care. I want Mary to be able to relax rather than experiencing the tension she feels because of the uncertainty. And, given her surgery is 6 to 8 hours long, we don't really want a tired set of medical staff starting later in the day and having to work until well into the evening.

Master of the Schedule is supposed to call by 7PM or we are to call him. Because of phone coverage on the way to Santa Cruz we have not headed out for dinner as planned because we do not want to miss this call. When we do go, our plan is to have a nice Mexican meal on the Santa Cruz wharf at Olitas. Mary loves the seafood tacos, especially the lobster.

More later