Po-etic Justice

My dad had surgery last week after months of tests, scans, consultations, medical appointments and difficult decision-making – not to mention the long waits in between each of these steps in the process. Thankfully, all went according to plan and the surgery was a tremendous success. We credit God’s guidance, the doctor’s skill, the prayers of friends and family, and the strength of my dad and his nurse (my mom) for the great results.

But this was a new experience for me as a parent. Although my husband’s father had surgery several years ago, our kids were too young at that point to really know what was going on. However, at ages six and five, they were old enough to know – and yet we didn’t want to scare them or fill their heads with information they were still too young to fully understand.

Our girls are very close to their grandparents and love them dearly. We just told them that Po (what they call my dad) was sick and needed an operation but that the doctors were going to make him better. We prayed for Po (and Grams, my mom) for months, and then it came time for me to leave town to be there for the surgery.

As I was packing my bags, the girls came to me with one major concern: “Will Po have to wear a dress?” Puzzled, I finally figured out that they were referring to a hospital gown like the one they had seen Josh wear on the TV program “Drake and Josh.” I explained that he would most likely have to wear something like that while hospitalized and the girls made me PROMISE to remember exactly what it looked like so I could tell them about it afterward.

Kids are so refreshing. They aren’t aware of the possibilities – complications from surgery, grim pathology reports or the fact that cancer can spread – so they focus on what they do know. And boys aren’t supposed to wear dresses. Period.

So when I returned home and reported that Po not only wore a hospital gown, but also had to don industrial-strength “pantyhose” during surgery to reduce the chances of blood clots in his legs, the girls were amazed and strangely fascinated. Then the story got even better.

The first night Po was hospitalized, he was joined by a roommate – who just happened to be a woman. It was a hospital mix-up which was quickly corrected (especially when she took command of the TV remote control and changed the channel from the football game to “The Bachelor”), but my brother and I discovered the true root of the problem – on the dry erase board in the nurses’ station, they had listed our dad’s last name with an “F” beside it for “Female.” This, in spite of the fact that he had just had his prostate removed. Seems to me that should have been a no-brainer.

Anyway, I relayed this story to my husband (who was back home with the kids) and he told our girls, building it up to be a really big deal that the hospital placed a woman in Po’s room. Knowing that Grams also had a guest room in the hospital in case she needed to go rest, our oldest daughter thought a moment and then asked the question: “So did they put a man in Grams’ room???” After all, fair is fair, right?!?

In closing, I am very happy to report that my dad is recuperating nicely and his masculinity is completely intact in spite of having to wear a “dress” and “pantyhose” and room with a female for a brief moment in time.

And our girls are SO excited that their Po is okay.