The Aftermath of Callie and Arizona - Volume II

Don't Provoke An Angry Bear Or A Dutiful Wife Part II

Callie's POV:

It was Thursday morning, finally, and the day I had a big procedure in the OR. I was working with a team of other surgeons and residents on one of the Seattle Sounders, our professional soccer team. He had fractured his left tibia and fibula during a match and had to be carted off the pitch, as a result. 

So, he was pinning his hopes and career on our team that morning if he was going to be able to play professionally again. No pressure, right?

Arizona and I drove separately that day, but only because she was off early in order to pick-up the girls from her parents, later on. Since I knew I'd be about 10 minutes ahead of Arizona, I took a moment to get us both coffee from the kiosk near the garage entrance and waited for my wife to appear in the main lobby.

Sure enough, we locked eyes immediately as Arizona walked through the parking garage door.

"Callie! You are a godsend if that coffee is for me?!"

"Of course, Arizona! There's no one else I want to buy coffee for other than you, my love." I handed her the cup, as she smiled and kissed my cheek.

"I know you are just trying to be charming as you buy coffee for other people all the time. Nonetheless, I need the caffeine so I'm just going to say thank you, my love!"

I kissed Arizona's cheek and took her hand as we walked to the elevators and rode to our office floors. After a quick peck on the lips, we parted ways and started our work days. 

I dropped my things off in my office and headed to the locker room to change into scrubs for the surgery I had scheduled in an hour. That morning, the soccer star was going to have an open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) procedure. Meaning, we'd need to open up the leg to re-align and put the bones in their correct position. Next, we'd be using various surgical tools (screws, pins, etc.) for reconnecting the bones.

It's usually a straightforward procedure, however, this player's leg was the result of an injury that shattered his fibula as his tibia pierced the skin. The bones were basically destroyed, but that's where my expertise came in to play. Rebuilding bones out of nothing is something I excelled at and loved doing. In fact, I had opened up the observation gallery to any of our staff or residents that wanted to watch.

My heart rate was up that morning, but not because of the caffeine. No, I was flying high on the endorphins I was already feeling as I got pumped up about the challenge that laid ahead of me in OR 3. 

I was happy that morning that everyone and everything was ready to go and on time for a change. It's amazing to me how a VIP patient has a completely different experience than most of our other patients in terms of our readiness. Oh well, I was just thrilled for a change to start the surgery on time.

When all was said and done, the procedure took about two and a half hours. I would have been done in two hours, but the damage to the fibula was so great, that I had to place a rod I wasn't initially thinking I'd need to place. The joys of surgery sometimes is that we don't know exactly what's going to occur until we open someone up. It sounds archaic, but it happens a lot in my discipline. 

As I scrubbed out of the OR, it was lunch time, finally! I was starving that afternoon since I only ate a couple of hard boiled eggs for breakfast at 6 am. Realizing I had my afternoon free, I decided to pick-up something from the restaurant a block away from the hospital campus. 

It was a basic cafe that had a little of everything, but everything they served, was amazing. It was nothing fancy, but there was something about their burgers I loved. I decided to splurge that day and ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries to go. Once I had my food in hand, I opted to sit on one of the benches outside and eat my lunch. It was in the low 80's that late June day, with brilliant blue skies.