Things are looking up

watching the fan, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

Ten days to go until surgery. It seems so close but so far away. I had a three hour meeting at the pre-admission clinic on Friday to discuss some particulars of my surgery. First I met with a nurse to discuss all the logistics of my surgery and hospital stay. Here are the coles notes of what she said: Since my surgery is on the 10th, they want me not to eat or drink anything other than clear fluids after midnight on the 8th. I also have to do a Colite bowl cleanse (yes, its as fun as it sounds) on the 9th. On the day of my surgery I will go in to the hospital, check in at the admitting desk and then head to the 4th floor surgery waiting room. At that point I meet with the doctor and anaesthetist to discuss any last minute questions I might have. Then the anaethetist will start my epidural (for pain management after surgery) and put me under for the surgery. After I wake up I will be in recovery for a little while and then move to either unit 102 (general surgery and surgical oncology) or if that unit is full I will be in unit 71 (trauma surgery). My hospital stay is expected to be about 7 days and I should be back to eating some solid food by the time I head home.

After talking to the Nurse I met with the anaesthetist to discuss the details of my anaesthesia and pain management. We discussed the logistics of anaesthesia and the risks. He said that one option I have for pain management in the days after the procedure is an epidural (just like when you get a C-section to deliver a baby). One of the best things about an epidural is that it manages the pain so effectively that you can be up and out of bed as soon as 8 hours after surgery! This helps reduce the risk of blood clots in the legs an fluid pooling in the lungs and generally makes for a quicker, less painful recovery. I told him I was totally on boad with the epidural.

The final person I met with was the internal medicine doctor. She was working her last shift at the Foothills hospital before moving to Vancouver for more training. She had been up until 3 am the night before (I saw her at 8am the next morning!) packing and trying to convince her 4 year old that they weren't going to forget her teddy bear when they moved. We discussed my medical history and she was mildly concerned about my heart condition. She paged my cardiologist who came over to discuss things in person (thanks Dr Gillis!). In the end I was prescribed some beta blockers that may or may not help with the issue.

After 3 hours of waiting and Doctor consultations I was declared fit for surgery and told to call on the 9th to find out what time I needed to show up on the 10th for surgery. All systems go!