The husband is home, safe & sound

The last time Mike had out-patient surgery, he called the hospital ahead of time to explain that his wife was blind and would accompany him to a cab to get him home afterwards.

That was eight years ago, when I was still working with Hanni, my second Seeing Eye dog. The staff member who answered the phone wanted to know what his wife would do if her guide dog needed to go outside. Mike told her I’d be able to handle that.

The hospital staff member put him on hold.

When she returned, she asked if they could just call his wife at home when the surgery was over. That way she could come in the cab and just wait downstairs, they reasoned. “We can bring you down to meet her there.”

Mike told them his wife wanted to stay in the waiting room during surgery. “You know, if something goes wrong, she’d like to be there.” The woman listened, then put her hand over the receiver and called out, “He says the blind woman wants to be there!” She took her hand from the receiver then and told Mike it should be okay, as long as he understood he might not be feeling that great after the operation.

She was right about one thing: he didn’t feel great after that operation. But I did stay during the surgery, and once the staff said Mike was fine to go, Hanni the Seeing Eye dog and I walked outside with him to catch a cab home.

Fast forward to 2018. Remember that post Mike wrote last month about sinus pain? He had sinus surgery yesterday, we didn’t let anyone there know ahead of time that his wife is blind, and the medical staff seemed indifferent to my disability. I was told ahead of time that he’d need post-surgery prescriptions for home, so Whitney the Seeing Eye dog guided me to the second-floor hospital pharmacy while we waited. Once they said Mike was fine to go, Whitney and I walked outside with him, the valet hailed a cab for us, and now we’re home.

The patient is doing remarkably well, but he’s on house arrest for the next few days–doctor’s orders. One of the scripts we picked up was for pain and seems to be doing the trick, but every hour Mike has to change the tight roll of gauze pads taped under his nose.

One of those rare occasions where I benefit from not being able to see.