My Pre-op day

I went in today for my pre-op assessment. Much of it was uneventful and really boring as there was lots of hanging around. Still, you might like to know what went on so here goes...

I had loads of questions asked of me; do you smoke, drink, have heart attacks, take drugs??? Nope I replied to pretty much everything. Have you had an operation before? Oh gawd thinks I where shall I start… Anyway, they want to know all about allergies, anaesthetic risks, that sort of thing. Sensible stuff really. So that was that bit then back out to the waiting room- there was a lot of the back out to the waiting room so I shan't bother typing it again- you'll just have to imagine it at the end of every paragraph!

Next, I had swabs taken from nearly every orifice (I did say nearly). They will test these for MRSA - if I am a carrier then it will have to be treated before I go in.

Then I got to see the surgeon and armed with my list I kept him busy for ages. He was really good and very patient and gave me the following facts. Don't read this paragraph if you are squeamish (you have been warned!). My surgery is complicated (like me) and they won't be able to make most of their decisions until I am sliced open and they can see my insides. Firstly they will do anterior procedure, incision around the bottom of my rib cage, take out the bottom rib (for bone grafts) collapse my lung and get at my lumbar spine from there. They will take out the discs and see how flexible I am and then see how far they can reach to put rods in. Probably not far enough so they will have to flip me over and do another entry from the back (posterior) to put the rods in. I may have to have a second operation (1 to 2 weeks later) to do the posterior procedure depending on how well it's going, how well I am doing under the anaesthetic, how long it has taken up to that point and whether the surgeon wants to get home for his tea. If I'm lucky his wife will be away so he'll be getting takeaway and he'll do it all on the same day! Fusion is to be from T3 to L5 (great picture of spine here: http://www.sisonline.org/pages/spine.html). The next thing he did was to tell be about all the possible complications; things like DVT, infection, paralysis etc. A figure of 10% was put on the last one but he said that the risks of neurological and organ damage from not getting it done far outweighed that! Anyway, I had to sign forms to say I understood and that was that. I am expected to be in hospital for between 1 and 3 weeks all together and will have to spend a certain amount of time in Intensive Care and high dependency unit because apparently with the chest drains etc that they insert, you need one to one nursing. Gosh, I shall feel important!

It was then off for blood and by this time the vampire (sorry phlebotomist) had gone to lunch so one of the nurses had to do it. What excitement, I didn't stop bleeding until I had managed to fill up 3 cotton wool balls with blood. Bring back Dracula I say!

Finally I went for x-rays - firstly, it was "please bend to the right" - aha I thought, that's easy for me as that's the way my spine bends anyway but then I found I had to be propped up on a chair 'cos I overbalanced! The lady was very nice and didn't laugh at me, when she found that my centre of balance was so out of whack - I did my best weeble impression but - oops, I did start to keel over and she had to grab me to stop me from hitting the floor! Next x-ray it was "please stand up straight" (what, can't do straight, that's why I'm here!) and then " finally bend to the left" (ow ow ow - that hurt!). So, that was the end of them - I didn't get to see them to comapre them to my last lot, which I would like to have down. Hopefully I will get the chance when I'm admitted.

After all that they let me go home. Admission date is the 7th February, surgery is on the 8th February and this has been one loooong post!