So surgery day arrived - Wednesday, January 11. The day before, I had spent about half a day at work wrapping up some lose ends to prepare for being out for probably a couple of weeks. I had also spent quite a bit of time on te phone with my doctor's office and various people at the hospital where I would be having my surgery to iron out pre-op and payment details. But back to the topic at hand - surgery day.
I was originally scheduled for my procedure at 1 PM, but thankfully my surgery had been moved a couple of hours earlier due to some cancellations earlier in the day. I could not eat or drink after midnight on Tuesday night, so in my opinion, the earlier the better. Those of you who know me well know that it can get pretty ugly if I don't get to eat at regular intervals! But, that day I really didn't notice my hunger - I was a ball of nerves. Ryan tried to get me to loosen up but I just couldn't seem to do it.
Then they called me up to fill out paperwork. There's nothing like signing a form that you understand one of the possible side effects of the anesthesia and surgery is death to make a person feel more at ease! I tried my best to just relax but I was pretty nervous by the time they called me back to start prepping for my procedure. They sent Ryan to a waiting room for a bit and said he could come in once I got settled, so I was on my own for a while. The first thing they wanted me to do was provide a urine sample. No big deal... The nurse gave me a little container and showed me to the restroom. After she left, I realized the cap was on tightly enough that I couldn't unscrew it by myself one handed, at least in the nervous state I was in. This realization nearly brought me to tears, but I kept it together and went to find someone who could help.
Once that was done, the nurse took me to my bed in a little curtained off area and helped change into a lovely gown and grippy socks ensemble. The kind of cool thing about my gown was that it was attached to a haidryer type thing that would blow in warm or cool air, depending on your preference. They had it set to warm and it was getting pretty hot, so I was very glad to see Ryan when he came back in because he could help me with the controls.
But before Ryan came in, there had been a steady flow of what seemed like 20 people in and out of my "room". The first couple of nurses asked me how I hurt myself and were quite impressed that I finished the race. In fact, I felt like a minor celebrity because everyone else who came in mentioned it. You know, maybe all those people who paraded through just wanted to meet me... Ha ha!
We waited for quite a while and finally the surgery and anesthesiology nurses came back to teLl us they were almost ready for me. I have to mention that both of these nurses were men. No big deal, but it felt really strange to be escorted to the restroom by two men, especially while wearing my breezy-backed gown. After that trip to the restroom, it was showtime. I don't really remember anything past them starting to wheel me away until I woke up in the recovery room.
Looking back, I don't know what I was so nervous and scared about heading into surgery. I really think a lot of it was the unknown because thankfully I have been healthy to this point in my life. After surgery, I was so glad to have the procedure done, and according to Ryan's recap of what my doctor told him, it's a good thing I went under the knife.
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