Pre-op festivities

Well I just wrote a huge post only to have it somehow swallowed by Blogger, urgh!!! So now I will have to rehash in less detail while pressing 'save' often.

First was a visit to Dr T. I was shocked that the waiting room only had two other people in it. They took a panorex x-ray and then Dr T explained to the DH assistants what he was going to do in the surgery, it was as if they had never heard of SARPE before, which I found surprising. Dr T told me I'd need to be on a liquid diet for 4-5 days and that it would be 6-8 weeks for the gap to close. I think it will be less than that based on others experiences that I've read but I guess it's not a bad idea to be ready for it to take longer. He also thinks I'll be able to walk on my own to Dr W's office on Saturday morning.

Then it was off to the hospital pre-op clinic. A nurse named Liz used a machine to take my blood pressure and heart rate. Both of those were fine. Then she asked me a few standard questions, and the only alarming one was about my diet. I told her I'm a vegan, but I thought I saw her write vegetarian on the sheet. I'll have to be sure to remind the nurse in the ward because there's no way I can drink anything with milk in it without getting a very sore stomach. Soy milk is fine, though I don't like the taste of it. She also gave me some leg exercises to do right after surgery while I'm lying in bed to prevent blood clots due to the anesthesia. Very easy. She also said I'd have tubes in my nostrils during the surgery but I'm not sure that will actually happen. I know they do this for the upper/lower surgery but I'm not sure about SARPE. I'll have to ask Dr T tomorrow before we start. I wasn't expecting this but I guess if that's the way it has to be then so be it. Hopefully they'll take them out before I'm really too awake if I do have them. I was then sent for a blood test, which I assume turned out fine or workable. I can't remember the name of it - OCS? Anyway, some acronym like that.

Then as I was waiting to see the anesthesiologist I met a couple of younger guys who were there with their parents from far out of town who were also patients of Dr T. One was having upper and lower, and the other just lower. I am lucky to not have to fly in and stay in a hotel like they and their families have to. I wished them luck and then my name as called. The anesthesiologist asked me some questions and listened to my chest. Given my past history of tachicardia he ordered an ECG (electrocardiogram). Another nurse did that for me and it was normal.

So that was all she wrote for pre-op. Then I went to Canadian Tire to get a blender. Just a $50 Oster, should be fine. And later after dinner I went and stocked up on some groceries. I spent $70 mostly because I bought high calorie, fatty stuff like brownies, soy ice cream, and pumpkin cheesecake...oooh!

So I guess that's all there is to report. My surgery is at 7:45am tomorrow. I'll post when I get home on Friday and feel up to it, hopefully with photos.