Pre-op shenanigans 2007 Edition

Today was pre-op. My hospital appointment was for 8am and I got there well ahead of time. Thankfully I noticed on the info sheet that I had to go to the admitting room first. That went quickly but I discovered that they raised the prices of private and semi-private rooms by $10. $260 for private and $215 for semi-private. I requested a private room. After last time I think it's worth it. I think of it like a full service hotel. :o)

Everything with the nurse's interview went fine. Maureen is a chipper lady who used to actually do the post-op nursing with Dr T. I wish she could be there to look after me because she was very informed on this kind of surgery. I remember the nurses last time didn't seem to be very experienced with it, or at least that was my impression. Seems they had the wrong surgery time in the computer though. It said 12 noon but I'm sure Dr T's office told me 8am. So I'll confirm that today.

My blood work was done by a sweet old European lady who felt horrible for causing me any pain.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry. Just a little pin prick ok? Oh I'm so sorry!"

Hehehe! I told her I charge $50 per unit. She laughed.

We then went for an ECG. I'm amazed at how quickly the new machines take the readings. I brought the results back to Maureen and told her I had some pretty pictures for her to look at.

"Haha, yep, and they look really boring. You're good.".

Yay, no cardiac problems.

I then saw a guy from the anesthesiology team. He asked me a bunch of questions related to my interview and history. He listened to my heart and said it sounded fine. He then explained about the tubes they would be using, one in my trachea and one in my esophagus. The first one gets removed before I wake up when they are convinced I can breathe on my own. The second stays in a bit longer and gets removed in the recovery room. Same as last time. He said it would be uncomfortable. I remember that.

I'm not supposed to take any Advil from now till surgery. I'll ask Dr T about that as I definitely feel like I need it. Tylenol doesn't cut it.

Ok, of to Dr T's office soon…

…Ok, I'm back. It's definitely a blustery day out there! I arrived a bit early and was surprised not to see a madhouse of people in the waiting room. In fact there was only one other to start with. I got called in to do the paper work and paid my $2700 (ouch!). I also confirmed that my surgery time is now 12 noon, so that means I check in at the hospital at 10:30am. I'm really not happy about this only because it means I have to starve myself for 12 freakin hours! I am definitely going to try to stuff myself at 11:30pm on Sunday night!

After a second short wait it was time for x-rays; a panogram and cephalogram. They didn't give me a copy but I saw them on the viewer and can definitely see the disparity between the uppers and lowers, especially at the back molars.

A few minutes after that it was time to see Dr T. Most of the rest of the staff had gone home (or for lunch, I'm not sure which) and I was surprised that Dr T himself did my models! He also did a wax bite model and took some other measurements while sizing me up in various ways. I could hear the wheels turning in his head. Now that he has all my records he will study them to determine exactly what he needs to do, so I won't find out for sure until surgery day but it's definitely lefort, BSSO, cheek bone grafts and genioplasty. The question is just whether it will be a segmental lefort and whether he needs to widen my palette any further.

"You've done this a few times right?"

"Never. You're the first one."

"Ah, I'm the guinea pig then, ok."

"Actually I've been doing this for 30 years and have had over 4000 patients."

I can live with that!

He mentioned that he had just got back from Italy was still feeling a bit jet lagged. I told him to make sure he gets extra sleep for Monday.

"I don't need a lot of sleep really. Four to five hours and I'm good."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I did 3 cases on Monday and was feeling kinda tired, but nothing a can of Coke won't fix."

Haha! Just in case I needed proof that this guy was born to be a surgeon. And yes, he was totally kidding around here folks.

I will have a splint. Yes, my favourite! I wonder how it compares to the nasty RPE I had. Either way it sucks.

I will also be lightly banded for 6 weeks and will be able to remove them for eating and cleaning.

The hospital told me to stop taking Advil from now till surgery, and I definitely cannot live without that as my back gets really bad sometimes. I asked him if that was really necessary and he said that his only concern would be if I was taking huge doses of it. My usual two or three per day were fine by him. I will try to keep it minimal though.

Surgery typically takes him 2.5 hours. I told him that I often hear about it taking more like 5, but he said he has a great team in the OR and they've done thousands of cases. It really just depends on how experienced the surgeon is. I could go to a teaching hospital and have it take 10 hours if I wanted. No thanks. He also doesn't make any incisions on the outside of the cheeks like some surgeons do. He said he has enough room to get in there and put the screws in.

I asked for my post-op meds and he gladly wrote out a script for me. Same as last time: keflex and liquid codeine.

Overall he said things look good and he even remembered me from when he did SARPE on me. He was really happy with how that turned out. Me too.

Hooks on Thursday, agh!