"Are we there yet?" I grumbled to my dad, and he replied "no." I was getting really bored because I had already watched all of my movies in my DVD player... Now we are still on our way to Iowa City, when we finally spot the sign to get to the hospital, but we had no clue how to get to Parking Lot 2? My dad said in a low scratchy voice, “We better get there soon or we'll be late and won’t get our turn in!"

After driving around for about 20 minutes I found the entrance way to Parking Lot 2. It was in the coolest place ever! Right next to the Iowa Hawkeye Football Stadium! Once we had parked our big truck that we thought wouldn't be able to fit, we all stepped out and my dad and I mumble "urgghhh" as we stretched from that long 3-4 hour drive.

We started to walk to the main parking lot door. When we stopped we weren't sure if we were suppose to take the elevator, so my dad said in a nice quiet voice "Are we suppose to take the elevator, or the stairs?" She said that we were suppose to take the elevator, but she was wrong, so we were later then ever now!










“The front desk”
The three of us finally made our way to get to the front desk and we talked to this lady named Mary. She asked "How may I help? What are you guys here for today?" We told her all of everything that we knew, so she sent us through these 2 doors and we had to go down 2 floors, and we walked it all! It seemed like we went all the way to the other side of the hospital. I dreaded walking that far, but once we got there I got to sit down in the little, I mean BIG, waiting room. The waiting room was really neat because it had a huge fish tank that was about 5 feet tall, and 7 feet long! It was filled with so many big fish too. Also around the big aquarium was a soft chair built in with the aquarium.


“Leaving to get ready”
Then….. “Kendra Nerad?” a lady named Barbara called, so I popped up, and Barbara and I walked down the long hall, leaving Terri and my dad behind, in the waiting room.
[I have to admit, I was really worried without my dad coming with me to get all ready for my surgery.]
“Here Kendra, put these 2 gowns on, and put your hair in a pony tail. And put your shorts on that you brought.” Barbara asked in such a nice calm voice, while I am sitting there all worried. Nice, I finished getting dressed. Barbara brought Terri and my dad into the little room and closed the curtains.



“Needles”
Barbara then got a needle out, and she then laid me on my bed until I felt I was sitting up right. She got the needle out and I found out that it was my IV, and I had never gotten an IV so I thought it was gonna hurt, so I was all worried, when she told me that it will just feel like a mosquito bite, I said “okay” and I said that I was ready. She said ”Well I already have it done.” I thought “wow, that was fast, I didn’t even know that she put it in me.” Then she had to put this medicine into the IV tube, so that I would go to sleep during the surgery.






















After about 10 minutes she started talking to Terri, my dad, and I, about anesthesia, which will make it so I have no pain after the surgery. So I gave it some thought and decided that I would get it, I just didn’t like the fact that I would have to get another shot. I decided that I would be better off having a little pain from a shot, then a lot of pain from the entire surgery.





“Anesthesia”
Before I knew it Terri, and my dad were gone, and I had 3 guys come into my room to give me the shot, and they had also brought a long this big machine, and I wondered what it was for. I soon found out that it was for the screen to see my nerves inside of my body, so that they knew exactly where I had to have the shot. About 5 minutes before I got the shots I had to put this nosepiece in my nose, and it felt weird. The guys were really nice. One of them made me feel weird but this other guy named Kyle made me feel not worried, and he was very funny too, and he talked to me a lot so I wouldn’t pay any attention to the needle. His plan worked for a while, until I got pricked. “It’s okay Kendra, it will feel like you got stung by a wasp for about 30 seconds” Kyle said to me in a nice calm voice. Then for some reason I felt like I got another prick. It was really starting to hurt. [I got these shots on my right shoulder] After I got pricked, which felt like 6 times, the guys left. After that I don’t remember anything, but my dad had told me this. “After Kyle, Ross, and Kevin left, your Dr. Wolf came in to talk to you before he gave you the surgery. He first told you to squeeze his fists and you did. Then he had to put the breathing tube down your throat. You didn’t really mind that [I wonder if it hurt me at all, since I don’t remember this part], then he started talking to you about a lot of stuff, when before we knew it, you were out. Then Dr. Wolf and a few of his assistants wheeled you out of the room into Surgery Medical Part 1, of the hospital. When Terri and I had to go back and sit in the waiting room. About 2 hours, and 45 minutes later, a nurse came in to tell us that your surgery was done, and that you were in the recovery room and that you would wake up in about 20 minutes”. This is what my dad told me.







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“Recovery”
About 20 minutes, just like my dad had told me, I woke up, and I was so confused, I didn’t know where I was, and I wanted my dad, when a nurse came and asked me “Kendra are you ready to go. I replied “yes.” So she got me a wheel chair, because I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t walk because of the medicine. So I couldn’t move any part of my arm. It would just hang there, and I found out that arms can be very heavy. She got me a sling to put my arm in so I wouldn’t hit it into anything, because if I was to hit it on something I wouldn’t know that I did, since I had no feeling in it.


“All done, and heading home!”
Finally I was back in the room I started in, and Terri came in there, while I got back into my normal clothes. Then my dad got to come in there, and we all talked to the nurse, and she said that we could go, but before we did, we had to make another appointment to come back for a check up. So we did, then we had to get all the way back to Parking Lot 2, which was a longer walk, well for Terri and my dad. I got to be pushed in a wheelchair, only because I couldn’t keep my balance, because my arm threw me off balance. We got back to our truck, and I had to place my arm on a pile of pillows. We were finally on our way home, and I couldn’t wait to get home. Before we went home we stopped at Bonanza. But the thing was, I wasn’t suppose to be eating anything spicy, or with salt or pepper in it, until 24 hours later after my surgery, and that was only because of all of the medicines I had in my blood system, and my body. Terri, my dad and I still went there to eat, and I ate food that I wasn’t suppose to but I was just fine, but I did feel like I wanted to upchuck a little bit afterwards, but that was normal Terri said. The best food that I ate there was the cheesy baked potato things. “MMMM, yummy!” is what I said on my first bite!


Once we were all done eating, all 3 of us loaded back into the truck, and I once again had to put my extremely heavy arm on the pillows. When I got all situated I asked Terri to hook up my DVD players again, because I was so bored! I fell asleep watching my movie, but then I had my phone on my stomach, and it started to vibrate, then I woke up. I looked at my phone, and all of my friends were texting, and calling me. So I replied back to all of them.


“Getting home!”
After about 2 ½ hours we were home, and I was so glad, because I wanted to go straight to bed. But before I did, I “HAD” to eat more food and take 2 huge pills. I grumbled, “Do I have to take these? I am not hungry, and I am already starting to feel sick!” “Yes you have to, it will help bring the swelling down, and help control the pain, for when you can move your arm again”, my dad said. So I did take the pills, and I was so tired, I went right to sleep after that, but there was one thing that I didn’t like, it was that I had to take my pills every 6 hours, meaning I had to get up at about 2:30 a.m. I don’t like getting up or eating that early! I had to though. When the next morning came, I still couldn’t feel my arm, so my dad wouldn’t let me go to school, no matter how much I begged him. So all day I got to be on the computer, and play a game called “Runescape” it is really fun, then one of my friends texted me and asked if I would play on his account, so I did. It helped him a lot too. I also liked being on the computer, because I actually got to relax in our nice big leather chair, because I was using a friend’s laptop at the time. It made it a whole lot easier to be on the computer.



“Going back to school”

The next day was a Thursday, I could move my arm so I got to go back to school [I was glad] but my dad hesitated. I talked him into it, with the help of Terri! I had be very careful, especially since I was going to go to school, because my dad didn’t want my swelling to get worse, and we didn’t want my stitches to come out. The next day, I got up at 6:00 a.m., “Yes! I get to go to school today, but I still have no hours,” I thought to myself as I stretched, to wake myself up some more. When I was totally awake I got my bag packed took a shower, put my sling on, and I had to do my make-up and hair. By the time I got all done doing everything, I looked at the clock, “Whoa! I have 15 minutes till I get on the bus!” I mumbled excitedly. Before I knew it the bus had came and picked me up, and once I got to school, all of my friends came up to me, and welcomed me back, and asked how my arm was. I told them “My arm is so sore still, and I am so tired because of my medication that I have to take, because they make me drowsy”. One of my friends came up to me and made a little joke of how I am and I’ll be so tired during school. She same up to me and said “Don’t worry Kendra if you fall asleep, we will leave you be, but if you want we will stay to feel *dumb* with you… *not*…” then she laughed and said, “I am just joking, we will try our best to keep you awake! I said “Thanks, that makes me feel better about this day.”
“Day of school almost over/ going home”

The school day was almost over, and I felt like I wanted to cut my arm off, it hurt that bad. I had too many people bumping into my arm the entire day, and that wasn’t too good for my arm. Once the day was finally over, I actually thought that it was a relief. About 30 minutes later, I was just getting off of the bus, and the first thing that came to my mind was “I want to hurry and get in the house, and hustle up to my bedroom to go straight to sleep. But before I did that I had to do all of my homework, I dreaded that so much. Way before I knew it, I checked the time, and I could finally go to bed, I was so proud!



“2 weeks later”

2 weeks later I had to go back to Iowa City, for a check up, just to see if my stitches were doing okay, and that my swelling was going down. When we got to the hospital in Iowa City, we got put in this really little room, and it had a lot of little displays of different bones of the body. My dad had picked a display of the elbow, and I said “There’s the bone that was getting hurt in my arm”. My dad said that he thought that it was the one right next to it. I looked over to see the door opening and I whispered in a fast, kind of loud voice “dad put that back, Dr. Wolf is coming in.” He did as I told him, and then Dr. Wolf came in and talked to us, after about 2 hours we were sent on our way back home, and of course I watched my DVD players and went to sleep. When I woke up, I saw that I was home. Once I got into the house I laid down and went to sleep. Now all I have to do is wait until my next doctor’s check up in about 4 weeks.