11th Posting

And so we got up very early Tuesday morning. I set my alarm for 5:15, woke up at 4:35 and thought I had overslept! Quickly took a shower and then discovered, after I got dressed and started gathering stuff up that the alarm was now going off and I was up way, way too early. Such is my life, always assuming I have erred in some way.

We left the house at 6:15 (just in case) and got to Antioch half an hour early. The gentleman at the registration desk was very nice. He did ask me a few more questions than last time. But I was able to answer them satisfactorily. More phone numbers, for whom I worked, did I have an advanced health directive and did I have a living will. Or trust. One or the other. Can't remember now.

Within minutes I was escorted into the pre surgery area. Got dressed in my lovely gown, mop cap (to which I affixed my flower) and slippers, and jumped onto the guerney. The woman who inserted my IV showed up right away but didn't have all her equipment. My nurse hadn't actually arrived yet and lo and behold, there was no computer station in my cubicle. So if you get to pre surgery early, they aren't ready for you. But things were gathered up and my nurse did arrive. She was very nice. Luz was her name. Did another survey of my health history. And each person who addressed me asked me who I was, what my Kaiser number was, what procedure I was there for and did I understand what it meant. After about 1/2 an hour or so Andy was led in. By this time I was listening to a station on the TV that had pretty nature pictures and soothing music. I thought I would listen to that for a while until I realized the music was on a short loop. It started to drive me crazy so we listened to CNN for a while. By this time I was hooked up to the IV with an antibiotic ready to go, cuffs on my legs again to massage them during the surgery and three EKG thingys on my chest and shoulder. Visited the ladies twice just to make sure I didn't have to stop in a porta potty during surgery (marathoner's joke, sorry). At about 9:10 Dr. Chang showed up, asked me what I thought he was going to do, marked the proper side with an X and told me I'd be going in about 20 minutes from then. The anesthesiologist had stopped by and told me I would have the standard sleep potions. Then a nurse anesthesiologist, Amber, came in and we went through the drill again but she was putting all this information into the computer. I told her that whatever had been done before worked perfectly. If she could find the record maybe they should just do that. She looked it up and said there was no reason to fix what wasn't broken and she would go with that. And she said the anesthesiologist was the same doctor as last time. That made me happy. She also said that I might be intubated (is that the correct term?) and therefore I might have a sore throat when I woke up. (which I remember I did have a little bit last time. I thought it was because my mouth was so dry) Or, she said there was another thing they could put in just in my mouth which pretty much served the same purpose. She would decide when I went to sleep. I really liked her. Andy said she reminded him of a friend of ours, same manner of speaking and a dry sense of humor. I thought about it for a moment and realized he was right.

At 9:25 the surgical nurse, Hazel, another nice lady, came in and wheeled me away to surgery. It seemed brighter but less metallic this time. I hopped onto the surgical table and there was Amber, another nurse, and Dr. Chang. They all rattled off important information about their preparation, sort of sounded like what I've heard from the cockpit of a plane. Hazel, Amber and I chatted very briefly and then Amber put the oxygen mask over my face. She said inhale deeply and I think I took two or three deep breaths and I was out. more to follow tomorrow.....