Patrick had his hernia repair surgery early this morning. He went in seeming a bit nervous and then took a sip of zarsed (?) and proceeded to get loopy drunk. No problem there.

The roughly 1-hour surgery wasn’t too trying, at least for me. I put my head against the wall in the waiting room and slept. Lisa on the other hand paced the floor; not worrying for P.T. But because the Sutter staff had insured us that there would be a computer screen in the waiting room on which we could check the progress of his surgery (they’re pretty organized there.) The monitor was nowhere to be seen. The nurse later reported that it had been stolen yesterday morning, three days after it was installed. The other nurse wanted to check my computer bag.

Doctor Gates showed surprise post-op that the size of the actual hole was smaller than a pea. However the hernial sac was quite deep and intricate. There was much dissecting to do, carefully, so as to not damage the vas deferens. (Vas deferens is Latin for “carrying away vehicle.” You figure it out.) No damage was done.

The hernia was just a bit too small to insert a scope (scope is Latin for “a thing to look over on the other side for another hernia”) to possibly diagnose a second hole and repair it at the same time. So for now we will wait and see with the left side just as we originally did with the right.

Patrick awoke about a half hour later groggy but telling us he felt “good.” He was home about an hour later feeling “not so good,” but repaired all the same.

Lisa and I are thankful do have him sewn up and have the risk of surgery behind us. And now it’s back to regular life, working, coaching soccer and remodeling the kitchen.