"The doctor will be with you shortly."

"It shouldn't be much longer."

If you've ever waited in a hospital, you know those words can mean absolutely anything.

In this episode of The Wicked Daughter, surgery is scheduled... then mysteriously canceled... after the cafeteria apparently gets the memo before the nurses.

Between endless waiting, another day without food, and the quiet fear of anesthesia, I learn that sometimes the hardest part of caregiving isn't doing something...

it's waiting to do anything at all.

And when Mom finally returns from surgery, nothing could have prepared me for the sight of an external fixator holding her shattered leg together.

It's a story about hospital time, impossible waiting, and discovering that "normal" means something very different inside a hospital.

If you've ever spent hours in a waiting room wondering what happens next...

this one's for you.

Send us your comments!

Before you head back to medication schedules, insurance paperwork, and explaining to your parent for the fifteenth time why they can't climb on a chair to change a lightbulb...

Grab your free Caregiver Emergency Checklist at TheWickedDaughter.com.

If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave a review. It helps another unsuspecting caregiver find us.

Then come join The Wicked Daughter Community on Facebook, where we swap stories, share practical tips, and prove that a slightly twisted sense of humor is sometimes the best medicine. https://www.facebook.com/wickeddaughter

And if you'd like to help support the show, you can always Buy Me a Coffee. It helps keep the stories coming, the microphone on, and my caffeine levels high enough to survive another week of caregiving chaos.

https://buymeacoffee.com/wickeddaughter

Thanks for being here. It really does mean the world.