Technically I have one more test but that is the morning of my surgery on Monday. The doc wants to me to arrive half an hour earlier than normal so I can have my blood typed and cross matched. He has reserved 2 units of blood.
On Monday I started my pre-op at the hospital at 10:00 a.m. I did the usual review of address and insurance and was then escorted to the first stop of the pre-op section. At the first stop I was given a form to fill out for the anesthesiologist. Guess what? The anesthesiologist wants the exact same information as the surgeon and the hospital at large. I have had enough previous surgeries to know that I should bring my cheat sheet list of meds and surgeries. It was easier to fill out the form but evidently I write really slow or I have more than the usual number of meds and operations in my history because I was asked several times if I had completed the form. So, form in complete I was escorted to what looks like a typical nurses station but it really a self-contained area for pre-op interviews. I get weighed and my height measured. Of all of the things that could be under-measured could the tech not have under-measured my weight instead of my height? From the weigh-in I went to a private room where the tech took my temp and blood pressure. I walked across the hall to do a clean catch urine sample. Then Michelle the R.N. came in and proceeded with a very long and detailed interview. By coincidence she is the same nurse that did my intake 8 years ago when I had my hyst. Very pleasant and caring person! Your intake nurse is good person to ask general questions about procedures on the day of and your hospitalization. She emphasized getting written doctor's orders for anything even a little bit out of the ordinary for your care. For instance I have compounded eye drops for my dry eye that needs to be refrigerated. The doc has to write an order to allow me to use my own compounded drops that I bring from home and order that it be kept in the fridge. She said do not let the doc leave to prep for your op until he has written out any special orders. Towards the end of the interview a tech came in and did an EKG and drew blood. My blood pressure was pretty high so the nurse called the anesthesiologist and asked if he was okay with it. He said he was perfectly fine with it because he said it is high because of the TN. So I was on my way to the x-ray department for a chest x-ray. By that time I was running late for my audiogram appointment so I called and let them know I would be late. I left the hospital at 1:00 p.m. So that is 3 hours for the first part of the pre-op. I was 20 minutes late to the E.N.T. The audiogram was quite annoying. I won't bother you with the inefficiencies of the office staff and procedures. The good news is that I am gong into surgery with normal hearing. Having never had an audiogram I can't tell you if it is normal for it to be quite uncomfortable. The first part of the test required that very tight fitting ear plugs be VERY firmly place into my ear canals. It could be that the tech used the wrong size because when he was looking over the variety of sizes of of ear plugs I heard him mutter, "I think these will be okay." Part 2 take out the very firmly placed ear plugs and put in a different pair. This test included touching a monitor when I heard a tone and then touching a picture that represented the word that I heard through the ear plugs. At some point the test stopped and instructed me to place a halo type thing on my head. It has a wire coming out ot the center and each of the ear plugs. You have to be careful with this because the wires tend to want to touch your face. Especially your nose. It is good that you are expected to place the halo yourself so you can watch out for the wires. The halo waas not terrible for me but it was not good and I can see how it could be very uncomfortable for some TN people. In order to hold i in place it has a disc in the front center that presses quite firmly against your forehead. It is about the size of a 50 cent piece. I did not see if there is something similar on the back of it. So the doc poked in his head and asked me a few questions and then I was on my way at about 3:30. I'm not sure why such a day is so exhausting because it didn't involve much physical exertion. Next day - Tuesday I had a CAT scan. That was easy peasy.
Another detail about the pre-op appointment; I was told about my prep for surgery. Johnson and Johnson's Baby Shampoo, twice on the morning of. Nothing like being specific, huh? And stop all supplements and OTC stuff 7-10 days before the op.
I live in the Atlanta area. As you might know yesterday and today are ba-a-a-d weather days for us. I find myself feeling pretty self-absorbed because I am so focused on how the bad weather my affect my ability to get all of my pre-op's done. Who cares if the power goes out as long as my Publix didn't run out of my Belvita bars for after my op.
