Pre-Op Day

Tomorrow is my big day of pre-op work-up at the Cleveland Clinic.
My schedule?
9:45 Lab
10:15 Internal Medicine nurse
10:30 Internal Medicine Doctor
12:10 Pace Clinic Preoperative Clearance
1:00 Pace Clinic Admitting Interview
2:00 Dr Remzi - Colorectal surgery
2:40 Stoma Therapy
3:00 Nurse Patient Education

The lab work will be fun, they'll draw something like 4 vials of blood - here's hoping they get a good vein on the first stick. The internal medicine nurse and doctor is basically to make sure I'm healthy enough for major surgery. Funny huh? At some point, you have to be sick enough and yet on the other hand.... The Pace clinic stuff is to get all the paperwork out of the way. Then I go see my surgeon then I have to meet with the stoma nurses as I'll be getting a new stoma so they'll talk with me about placement and how to care for it. The last bit is all the rundown you get before surgery, nothing to eat or drink after midnight (thankfully because I'm already without a colon I won't have any nasty bowel prep to drink), no jewelry, makeup, hairspray, deodorant (Yuck) basically, come as God made you cause they can't have it on the OR.

FRIDAY is the day.

After waiting for so long its hard to believe its almost here. I hope these last few days go rather quickly because I'm just ready to get it over with. It is true what they say that waiting is the hardest part. The imagination can be cruel.

The Cleveland Clinic surgical center is like an airport.
Not kidding. The family waiting area is huge and it has big flat screen monitors on the walls. Each family gets a little beeper-type device. Like they give you at restaurants to let you know your table is ready. The family gets paged when there is a change in your status. And every patient has a code that the family can look up on the monitors and it tells them whats happening. For instance it can say something like HK102CR (Harsh, Kathryn 102 ColoRectal) and then my location Preop, in transit, Surgery, Recovery.... Delayed - see what I mean about the airport??

Once you get checked in and they call you to the pre-op area you head into another building and that's where the fun begins. Once I'm gowned and prepped for surgery my family can come back and stay with me until they take me away. We usually just look at each other and pray. What is there to talk about at that point?

Then they come get me and I get wheeled into yet another building. And at this point I don't have my glasses so there isn't much to tell you cause I can't see it very well! I know there is at least 30 operating rooms and they park me outside of mine until they're ready to bring me in. The anesthesiologist will come out and talk to me and then my surgeon will come say hi and "Don't worry, I'll take good care of you"

Lets just get it over with.