Last Appointment.

Well, we had a surgical follow-up appointment last week to make sure my Dad's hernia surgery is healing well. I had already decided that after this visit there would be no more doctor visits except under the most extreme conditions. Unfortunately, there was no way to inform my father of this and on the way to the follow-up he staged a protest of sorts.

I had reached the surgery center ten minutes early and, not seeing my dad or the caregiver, I stood at the desk. My cell phone started ringing and as I pulled it out of my purse, I could see it was dad's caregiver. I answered, thinking perhaps they were late, only to hear that they were actually at the front, but Dad had been sick all over the caregiver's car just minutes before pulling into the parking lot. As I felt my mouth set in displeasure at the whole situation, he asked if I could find some gloves and towels or something else to clean it up. I told him I would do what I could and hung up.

Now I don't know if I just caught the nurses at a bad time, or maybe they've never really experienced anyone vomiting anywhere but neatly into a sink in the doctor's office, although I can hardly believe that, but they were incredibly slow in acquiring something for me to clean Dad! I waited, fuming, for fifteen minutes while they puttered around and went back and forth and finally they gave me two towels, one damp, and a small plastic baggie in case he was sick again. (!)This seemed like an incredibly inadequate response and I was a little perturbed by the lack of real material but I left and moved as quickly as I could through the corridors to the front door. As I came out of the automatic doors, my eyes began to scan for the white SUV and I finally saw it a ways down the driveway. As I hurried up, I could see what a terrible mess it was-my poor father sitting literally in pools of his own vomit. I'm not good with vomit at the best of times, and this was one of the worst things I'd ever seen. The caregiver would be lucky if he ever got the smell out of his car.
TBD