Later on Wednesday

When I wrote earlier this morning, I said I wasn’t going to start the gingerbread but at about 10:30, I did. About 10 minutes to 11, I put it in the oven and, of course, at 5 minutes to 11, the phone rings and I am told Fred will be ready to be picked up at 11 am! I had set the timer for 40 minutes and thought I could be there and back before the gingerbread was ready. So, I drove off and got to the entrance by 11:05. Now, when *I* had the colonoscopy, I was there waiting in the lobby and when he drove up, I was wheeled out and straght into the car. And, of course, I assumed it would be like that this time. But, as you have probably guessed, of course it wasn’t!

I sat outside the door in the car until an ambulance came up behind me and obviously wanted me to move so I drove into the parking lot and found a parking place a long way away. I went in. it was 11:10 and he wasn’t there. I waited first patiently and then impatiently. The volunteer on the desk kindly called to find out why he wasn’t there and I was told he was getting dressed. Five minutes later, I made my way down to the recovery area to see if I could find him. I told one of the people back there I was in a hurry because I needed to get home because there was gingerbread in the oven! She laughed and went in to get him. He insisted he could walk out and they insisted that he wasn’t going to but eventually he capitulated and they got him into a wheel chair.

In the entrance lobby, I told the nurse that I was parked a LONG way away so I would wheel him out to the car. You would have thought I had said I would disembowel him in public by her reaction. No, he had to be taken by a hospital person, she was too busy to wait while I got the car and it would be a few minutes before an orderly was free. By this time, visions of a wildly beeping timer and burned gingerbread at home were dancing in my head! I told Fred and the nurse to wait in the lobby and I would go and get the car. Now, the way this place is set up, there is only one way one can get in and another way to get out. So, I had to get into the car, drive the long {and only way} out, and then cut across two lines of traffic to get back in! By the time I got there, there was still no orderly to help him, but just as I was going to park illegally in front of the door and get out to help him, he came out walking because he had seen me drive up. Just about the time I got to the car door, an ambulance drove up behind me and started the headlight-flashing routine to get me to move! I calmly {well, outwardly anyway} ignored it and made sure Fred was buckled in and the door was fastened. {He hates my car because it is too small for him!}

Then I drove home keeping strictly to the speed limits {25 mph and 35 mph} because I then realized I had come out without my purse and thus without my driver’s license! I left him to get out of the car all by himself {and fortunately, he was over the anesthetic! } and ran up the stairs. My first thought was that I was in time because there was no demented beeping from the timer. When I went over to see how much time was left, I saw I had not even  started it on its countdown! According to my watch, it had been in there 35 minutes out of the 40 the instructions said.  I opened the oven and checked the center with a sharp knife. The knife came out with batter on it, so I gave it another 10 minutes. At the end of this time, it was, you will be delighted to know, delicious.

And Fred had four polyps removed. This was no surprise because he always has polyps and I don’t. So far, the polyps have never been malignant but it will be a few days before we know about these. We are not worrying…

Until later…