Day 2 Before Surgery

I checked into the hospital at 6:30am; my surgery was scheduled for 8:30am. I was called into the prep station around 8:00am, 30 minutes prior to surgery. During my wait in the prep room doctors and staff came in one by one to do introductions and tell me what part they played in my surgery. I must have met 5 or more people. Everyone so pleasant, patience and professional.

I got undressed and put on my hospital gown, lower leg coverings and socks. My vital signs were checked and an I.V. started. The leg coverings were attached to a machine stationed at the bottom of my bed. The machine vibrated, compressed and released on a timer to promote circulation in my legs to help prevent blood clots; pretty much like a message on my lower legs and calves. I continued to have the leg coverings on after surgery and the duration of my hospital stay.

I was also given an Incentive Spirometer (breathing device) and told to I needed to use it every hour to prevent pneumonia from setting into my lungs. I was given more medications; a couple for nausea, one which was a patch for the back of my ear, just like the ones given to cruise passengers before sailing on a cruise. I was given a blood thinner shot, and something to calm my nerves so that I wouldn’t be so anxious going into surgery.

I semi-inspected my pre-op room by checking out equipment and asked a hundred more questions as the time for my surgery approached. Kenny sat there attentively, taking pictures and absorbing as much information about the procedure as he could.

We were told that I was expected to be in surgery for 3 ½ hours. The self talk began at this point, and I started telling myself that I could do this. Dr. Daly has done this hundreds of times; I’ve seen the procedure done a dozed time on the television show “BIG Medicine”, “My diabetes is about to become a thing of the past”, there was no time for me to think about beauty and my belly, but to concentrate on knowing that “God has too much for me to do, so he’ll wake my up after surgery and I will be just fine.”

After my little self pep talk, I just laid in that hospital bed excited and hungry; thinking about there is so much more to life than a breakfast chicken & biscuit.