The Surgeries
From James Donahue’s Journal
During the period that Jennifer was in high school, she began experiencing medical problems. We took her to a Saginaw specialist who discovered that she had a cyst on one of her ovaries. Thus, Jennifer went on the operating table for the second time in her life. The first was when she had her tonsils removed at Marlette Hospital.
At the same time Jennifer was going in for surgery at Saginaw, Doris also was scheduled for some intense surgical work at a Saginaw dental clinic. She was having implants installed in her jaw and both operations were strangely scheduled for about the same day. Thus, I was busy dashing back and forth between both places.
Doris came out of her “surgery” first and we high tailed it off to the hospital to be with Jennifer during her surgery. There was an intense snowstorm going on that day. By the time we left the hospital the weather was so bad it was difficult to see the road. Instead of trying to drive home we checked into a motel and stayed the night.
Jennifer came out of the surgery just fine, but she was a long time recovering and missed a lot of school. This all occurred during her senior year. School administrators questioned if Jennifer really had surgery and threatened to withhold her diploma. I remember that we had a heated dispute with the school over that issue. In the end, Jennifer was able to make up her missing schoolwork and she graduated with her classmates.
A year or two later Doris went into surgery at the same hospital and had some bladder repair from having four children. She also decided to have a complete hysterectomy rather than go through menopause. I was opposed to that but Doris insisted. So once again I sat in a waiting room, anxiously waiting. I saw Doris being rolled out of surgery before anyone talked to me. She was pale white and I was sure that she had died. But then the surgeon came in and told me everything was just fine.
From James Donahue’s Journal
During the period that Jennifer was in high school, she began experiencing medical problems. We took her to a Saginaw specialist who discovered that she had a cyst on one of her ovaries. Thus, Jennifer went on the operating table for the second time in her life. The first was when she had her tonsils removed at Marlette Hospital.
At the same time Jennifer was going in for surgery at Saginaw, Doris also was scheduled for some intense surgical work at a Saginaw dental clinic. She was having implants installed in her jaw and both operations were strangely scheduled for about the same day. Thus, I was busy dashing back and forth between both places.
Doris came out of her “surgery” first and we high tailed it off to the hospital to be with Jennifer during her surgery. There was an intense snowstorm going on that day. By the time we left the hospital the weather was so bad it was difficult to see the road. Instead of trying to drive home we checked into a motel and stayed the night.
Jennifer came out of the surgery just fine, but she was a long time recovering and missed a lot of school. This all occurred during her senior year. School administrators questioned if Jennifer really had surgery and threatened to withhold her diploma. I remember that we had a heated dispute with the school over that issue. In the end, Jennifer was able to make up her missing schoolwork and she graduated with her classmates.
A year or two later Doris went into surgery at the same hospital and had some bladder repair from having four children. She also decided to have a complete hysterectomy rather than go through menopause. I was opposed to that but Doris insisted. So once again I sat in a waiting room, anxiously waiting. I saw Doris being rolled out of surgery before anyone talked to me. She was pale white and I was sure that she had died. But then the surgeon came in and told me everything was just fine.