So anyway, July 18th was the day after I turned nineteen. I had known about the surgery for about three weeks. The logic behind the timing was actually brilliant: get it done before college started and I was nineteen which meant legally I was of sound-mind to make my own medical choices. Signing that consent form was one of the most horrifying experiences I've ever witnessed because I don't blindly trust people and that's what any sort of surgery is at its crux. I was having the procedure done at an outpatient center of Children's Healthcare because my ophthalmologist Dr. Weeks is a pediatric ophthalmologist.
We arrived at the surgery center (which was called Meridian Mark) at 9:33 A.M. and if you don't believe I remember the exact time I assure you I couldn't make up a time that precise. I filled out paperwork since I was of age and went through the admission process which took about ten minutes. My parents and I waited in the waiting room for maybe another fifteen minutes until being called back.
They called us back and took my vitals to write in my chart. While they did that one of the nurses put a pulse oximeter on my finger and she called it the ET finger after the movie. She asked if I'd seen the movie, and as a classic of modern science fiction and the film's cult following of course I had seen it. I then said if she wanted to watch an excellent Spielberg film she needed to see Schindler's List if she hadn't already. She had, and we had a nice conversation.
Next we were led to our pre-op room. There we watched CNN and I read a book as doctors came in and out. Apparently my surgery has some scheduling issues and kept getting moved due to bloodworm that the results took forever to get. back. The blood work wasn't exactly a necessity but it was done because I absolutely refused to do a urine test for pregnancy although I asserted more than once the idea of me being pregnant was laughable. To help with the blood draw they gave me Diazepam, which is powerful.
So after that was done, they put in my IV. They have this really awesome IV nurse named Kelly. Then, I met my anesthesia team that consisted of three awesome people. The first was a blonde lady whose name I can't recall. She told me about a great book called Once We Were Brothers that centered around the points of view of both a Jewish victim and a Nazi perpetrator. Then there was Miss Lama, who I still contact now and then to update her on my life. She expressed interest in my writing and buying my published works and comforted me as I was going through this.
Then I met Dr. Katz, my main anesthesiologist. On an unimportant yet also important side note Katz is a German surname that often is associated with Ashkenazi Jews and is one of the oldest European Jewish surnames. If you ever read the atrocity that was Trials by Fire you might recall Erika Robins falls in love with Innes Evans who was a surgeon. Of all the things I wrote in that book to parallel my life this was not one I expected. Dr. Katz is brilliant and I knew that from the second I met him.
Anyhow, when it was finally time to go in the Diazepam had worn off which was a very bad thing considering it had taken away my anxiety. As I was wheeled to OR 6 I remembered telling Miss Lama that the Diazepam had worn off and asked to hold her hand. I swear, people at children's hospitals are the kindest people on Earth.
Getting into the OR it was bright and I recognized Dr. Weeks, my eye doctor who kind of looks like a teacher I had in high school.I was helped onto the operating table under those really bright and scary lights. Imagine the table as the center of the room so I can relate that Miss Lama was holding my right hand and Dr. Katz was holding my left hand. As the anesthesia was being prepared, Dr. Katz asked me about where I was going to school in the fall and what I was studying, to which I replied Young Harris and English and Holocaust studies.
And then he told me he went to Auschwitz.
I couldn't believe it. This man was not only ten thousand times smarter than I was but he knew that even years after the Holocaust we had to stand and bear witness to the past. Had I been in a stable state of mind I probably would have asked him about every last detail of the trip and how he felt standing at one of the largest cemeteries of the world but I wasn't so I never got to.
So to wrap all this up, long story short everything went well and I was given a late birthday present of an unforgettable day.
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