Oh, he was out of recovery by the time I made that post. The 40 minutes was the interval between when they told me he was in the ICU and ready for me to visit him and the time when someone came and got me (which happened shortly after I posted). I wasn't in that big of a hurry - I've seen people in the ICU before and it's no treat. It's just sort of the closure thing you've been waiting for all day to verify that your loved one is still alive.

I didn't really have any complaints about the staff. Everybody we interacted with was friendly, cheerful and competent. And all the nurses were effusive in the praise for our surgeon, Dr. Dyrud. Always a good sign. There just seemed to be a couple of different theories on how the beeper system was supposed to work and when I was supposed to go where.