Purple Hours

Prologue

"Good morning, you showed up." I hear the laughter echo inside the room.

"Good morning, Dra." the patient smiled back at me. She's already wearing a hairnet, prepared for her surgery. It's 6 o'clock in the morning, we have surgeries mostly in the morning.

"Showing up is already half of the battle." Most of the patients are nervous, and rather afraid before their surgery. That's understandable. That's why I always make sure that I look confident before their surgery so they could trust me more. That's the most important part. 

"So it's like what we talked about. We're going to fix your mitral valve, and we're going to have like a 2-inch incision on the side." the patient, Ms. Linda, nodded and repeated what I'm saying like she was memorizing it. Her case is an open heart surgery. That thought was surely the main reason for her nervousness.

"Are you ready?" she smiled and nodded. "Are you nervous?" I asked. She nodded again and answered yes. "Well, I got you. Let's go?" I smiled and held her hand a little bit. 

I left the room and talked to other doctors, asking if there were something that happened last night about the patient that I need to know. 

"Uh, no major issues." 

We actually have one more patient to operate on after Ms. Linda, so we checked up on her also. There were no conflicts, and she was already prepared for her surgery.

When I went upstairs to the operating room, my intern is already inside. I like her enthusiasm in this field, and I can see myself on her when I was still an intern also. 

I scrub my arms up until near my elbow, before entering the operating room. What I like about the environment here, is I can trust everyone inside the room and I can rest assured that if something unexpected happens, they are there to help me. 

"Scalpel," 

After the surgery, I went directly to her daughter, and announce that the surgery was successful. I also informed her that the nurse will give her the full briefing once she went to the ICU to see her mother.  

"Thank you so much," I smiled and left. I went to my office to stretch a little bit. There's one more operation and I need to go upstairs again after 30 minutes. They are still preparing the patient. 

The second operation lasted longer than expected, but thankfully, it was a success. I sat nearby the bench and massage my feet a little. Nakakangalay talaga ilang oras na nakatayo. Well, my shift is now over, or should I say, this is the last operation I handled before I resign? 

"Merry Christmas, Dra. Happy Holiday!" Doc Gil greeted me. It's the 24th of December and it is past 11 pm. Yeah, Merry Christmas. 

"Merry Christmas to you too. Here's a little present for the hardworking doctor." I gave him a gift, it was nothing special really. I went to the boutique the other day, thinking of any gift I can give to my intern and nurses when I found the tie that I think he will like. 

Napansin ko lang na mahilig siya sa tie, so I bought him one in his favorite color - blue. He smiled like he was already expecting it.

"You always have gifts for us. Thank you!" he beamed. He was expecting it and still excited about it. He's so cute. "And this is for you," he bent down in his drawer and get something. It was a strand of sunflowers. Where did he get this?

"Mygash I love sunflowers!" I pouted and I am almost teary-eyed, how did he know? "This is so sweet, thank you so much." I gave him a hug and I don't know how many 'thank you' I said.