Surgery begins tomorrow promptly at 8:00 a.m.. That means I need to get there at 6:00 a.m. Not my favorite time to get up in the morning, but that is the least of my worries. The thought of anesthesia makes me nervous. There is the concern of never waking up again, but I also know from experience that the anesthesia is one of the hardest parts of recovery after surgery.
First of all, you have to wake up, which is hard. It’s not like waking up at 5:00 in the morning. This kind of waking is like trying to crawl out from under an oppressively heavy blanket that just keeps going on and on. Its is dark and hard to move or think or talk.
Then there is the process of getting the anesthesia out of your system. It takes weeks I think.
Mostly, I think I have watched too many episodes of ER, and Grey’s Anatomy and I worry about complications.
The surgery should be simple though and not too long and really there is no reason to expect anything to go wrong.
I am trying to be proactive, focusing on the things they have given me to do in preparation for tomorrow.
I showered with antibacterial soap to knock down the bacterial count on my skin–hopefully minimizing the possibility of infection.
I had a good dinner at Sycamore–Thanks Mom!
Drinking lots of water.
But no food after midnight or I turn into a gremlin. And, oh shoot, see I have already forgotten the rules about drinking water.
I think that’s it for pre-op.
Afterwards I am supposed to “ambulate” for 15 minutes twice a day after surgery. The use of ambulate in the directions cracks me up. Talk about using unnecessarily complicated language. Seems like “walking” would have sufficed.
I can’t lift more than 10 pounds and I should bend my back.
Really not bad requirements considering they are operating on my spine.
Now I think all that is left is to get a good night’s sleep and I have Vicodin to help with that. So I must be set.
Now I am off to sleep in my freshly washed sheets, with a low bacterial count.
