The surgeries themselves were interesting, and I was given great spots to watch. The doctor spoke English, showed me how to scrub in and explained everything has he did it. I saw one gallbladder removal, along with 3 stones. The first one that came out was roughly the size and shape of a mini marshmallow. But a little bigger. Huge. The second surgery was a wound cleaning. If you think hydrogen peroxide fizzes a little when you put it own your own cut, this was a volcano of foam.
And trying to follow directions in Spanish can be kinda difficult when you don't know the language. Oh, I felt bad for Hna Alejandra. She tried to give me the simplest of tasks but there was always at least one integral word that was missing. We spent five minutes just on where to get dressed, and WAY too much time on whether I needed a break between surgeries.
I had figured out that she was giving me the opportunity to take a break, but I wasn't sure how to communicate that rather not take one because I was pretty sure I wouldn't find my way back to the surgery ward, or I would spend so long trying to that the surgery would already be started. So I settled on trying to tell her that I would eat after the surgeries. Best to stay safe.
But then I realized I didn't know 1. how to speak in future tense, 2. how to pronounce surgery in Spanish.
I figured I would take my luck and say operation in a Spanish accent. Finding out what to do with the word "I will" was a different story.
Luckily, Annelys had just taught me the word "puedo", which means "I can" or "Can I?". I had asked her earlier because sounding rude in front of nuns was the last thing I wanted to do. "Just put puedo in front of everything and you'll be fine."
YES! PUEDO!
So in the most choppy, jolted sentence ever I said " I can... eat... after the operation."
And Hna Alejandra threw her arms in rejoice, looked towards the ceiling, and let out an exasperated sigh. Praise the Lord.
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