Preparing for surgery at Memorial Hospital

Well, we have checked out of the Memorial Guest House in preparation for the surgery. For now, Shirlayne has been admitted into the hospital where the surgery will be performed tomorrow morning. If all goes well, Shirlayne will stay here until Thursday. I will stay at the hospital by Shirlayne's side until she is discharged.

You can think of Memorial Hospital like IHC which runs several different hospitals in different locations. The Guest House is at one facility, but the surgery will occur at a different one. Because of the time it takes to travel in Istanbul, Prof. Erdoğru, asked us to consider staying in a different hotel closer to the hospital he works out of. We agreed, and have made reservations at a different hotel once Shirlayne is released.

For dinner we finally were able to get some Turkish Lira (money) from an ATM at the hospital and we grabbed a taxi. We went to a very large mall nearby called the Palladium and ate in their food court. I must say that is was nice to see a McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC, but Shirlayne and I both tried to stay with something a little more authentic.




Shirlayne grabbed something from Pesto

Kris chose turkmix for dinner tonight.

After dinner we had a quick surprise, Prof. Erdoğru stopped by to talk to us. After completing an 11 hour surgery, he was leaving for the day, and said that he will see us in the morning. Everything is still on schedule.


Not long after his visit, Shirlayne had a an EKG to check that her heart rhythm was normal. That was followed by a chest x-ray making sure her lungs were clear enough to be under anesthesia for a prolonged period of time.

Shirlayne in her hospital bed the night before surgery.

...more to come