Life goes on…

I had to take mom in for day-surgery this week and then make sure her post-op time at home went okay.  I was completely drained by the time I got home, and yesterday I was still tired and my thoughts weren’t translating into words and still aren’t the best, but I am glad I went and everything turned out okay.  Mom needs me more and more and that worries me, in case I let her down because of my health.

But getting back to taking her for surgery – she got checked in and organized and were told both the surgeon and anesthesiologist would stop by in a few minutes.  The anesthesiologist arrived first to talk about her health history and family health history asking a variety of questions.  She is forgetting some things so I was glad I was there to fill in the blanks, and others she just doesn’t see the importance of mentioning – things that are important – like the health of your lungs when you are going under anesthesia.  I don’t know if she has lost this knowledge, or never absorbed it from dad like I did, yet we all were at the dinner table when dad told us about his day and explained how things worked and answered questions.  I guess I am worrying that she is losing information she once had, but I also question if she ever really listened and learned.

Anyway, one of the questions was whether she had ever been under anesthesia, and if any of her relatives ever had a hard time waking up from anaesthesia.  That triggered me all over again, and made me realize that question must be asked by all anesthesiologists – that mine wasn’t just being overly careful – because he asked the question after finding out she had been put under before.

The whole experience triggered me that as adoptees – we aren’t entitled to that knowledge – knowledge that everyone else has and asked about.  I know this is harping on the subject of family health history, but when are people going to wake up and start talking about the very real risks to all adoptees? 

What do parents answer when they are asked that question when one of their children is going under anesthesia for surgery?  Are they really okay with not knowing an answer that could in reality have very serious implications?