this is just a whole series of new experiences
Today I had my pre-op checkup. This involved the lab taking four (!) vials of blood and a urine sample, and an EKG - another first for me, I've never had an EKG before. And I have my second pneumococcal meningitis vaccine ordered (though I can't get it until late May or so) and had some discussions with my doctor about the surgery and possible risks. He suggested that part of the reason that they may do this as outpatient is because it's generally safer to recover at home: the potential infections that you can get in the hospital are worse than what you can get at home.
I can live without MRSA so I'm fine with that. Past experience tells me that getting the kind of rest that you might want after a surgical procedure is difficult in the hospital -unless I was lucky this time and got a private room - years ago I was in the hospital for three days after surgery and ended up begging the attending to let me go home. They were talking about having me stay for an extra day and have a transfusion since I'd apparently lost a lot of blood during the surgery. But my roommie was an elderly lady who, if she was awake, turned on everything she could reach. Lights. Radio. TV. Volume all the way up. And she rang for the nurse about every twenty minutes as well, and this went on long enough that the nurses stopped turning on the overhead light and came in with a flashlight and STILL looked over in my direction and apologized.
So when the doctor came around on what was my last scheduled day and suggested that I should stay, I talked her out of it. Let me go home and get some rest! I promise I'll drink a lot of fluids and make my own blood. And it worked out fine. The other thing that Dr M suggested was that people move around better at home too, and if there's one thing we've learned in our household is that we don't want a blood clot to form. Three years ago after our vacation, which involved an 8-hour flight, my husband had a deep vein thrombosis that traveled up and became a pulmonary embolism and there was a LOT of pain involved, not to mention the risk of death, so yeah, we don't do that any more.
I'll walk, I'll move, I'll do whatever it takes.
So that's it until surgery day. No, I lie, there's one more appointment. The anesthesia nurse will call me two days ahead of the surgery, and they ONLY do it on the phone.
Can't imagine that's going to end well, but presumably they know that they're dealing with a hearing impaired person given the nature of the surgery. We shall see.
I can live without MRSA so I'm fine with that. Past experience tells me that getting the kind of rest that you might want after a surgical procedure is difficult in the hospital -unless I was lucky this time and got a private room - years ago I was in the hospital for three days after surgery and ended up begging the attending to let me go home. They were talking about having me stay for an extra day and have a transfusion since I'd apparently lost a lot of blood during the surgery. But my roommie was an elderly lady who, if she was awake, turned on everything she could reach. Lights. Radio. TV. Volume all the way up. And she rang for the nurse about every twenty minutes as well, and this went on long enough that the nurses stopped turning on the overhead light and came in with a flashlight and STILL looked over in my direction and apologized.
So when the doctor came around on what was my last scheduled day and suggested that I should stay, I talked her out of it. Let me go home and get some rest! I promise I'll drink a lot of fluids and make my own blood. And it worked out fine. The other thing that Dr M suggested was that people move around better at home too, and if there's one thing we've learned in our household is that we don't want a blood clot to form. Three years ago after our vacation, which involved an 8-hour flight, my husband had a deep vein thrombosis that traveled up and became a pulmonary embolism and there was a LOT of pain involved, not to mention the risk of death, so yeah, we don't do that any more.
I'll walk, I'll move, I'll do whatever it takes.
So that's it until surgery day. No, I lie, there's one more appointment. The anesthesia nurse will call me two days ahead of the surgery, and they ONLY do it on the phone.
Can't imagine that's going to end well, but presumably they know that they're dealing with a hearing impaired person given the nature of the surgery. We shall see.
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