Tales of Last Week - Thursday
I watched Slap Shot on the plane back to DFW. It was one of those movies that everyone always talked about as one of the great sports films. It didn’t seem great in 2008, it felt downbeat and defeatist, with one of those tacked-on absurd endings they were so fond of in the 70’s. (Can’t figure out how to resolve all of the plot lines? How about a pie fight?)
When I got to the hospital just after noon, RJH was sill in surgery. I still didn’t know which one of his arms was broken.
Out of surgery, sleeping with three pins in his right arm and a cast over it, he looked older somehow. There were two broken bones, and they tried to set it conventionally, gave up, and used the pins to fix the bones. He’d been roughed up, and his pain was hard to control. It became clear that he wouldn’t be ready to go home that day, and I drew overnight duty.
I settled into the reclining visitor’s chair and watched TV with him. Cartoon Network had given way to Adult Swim, and I let him watch a usually-forbidden Family Guy. He needed to get away with something (and I knew that episode wasn’t too bad). I was exhausted, but I’d made the right decision to come home a day early.
We were both asleep by 8:30, waking every few hours for pain medications and vital signs checks, in the unique rhythm of the hospital.
