The Countdown Begins in Earnest – Without Bacon

This past Tuesday, I needed to go to the hospital for the final check-in before my surgery. It was at the Victoria General hospital in Halifax, in the Victoria building on the 10^th floor. I was able to meet with a myriad of fun, laughing, smiling, frigging hard working people. I am sure it is not their job to do so, but they really put my mind at ease.

I first met the admitting nurse. She was a busy bee! But very efficient and knew her stuff. She took all my information, including insurance and placed it all via stickies on I think about a million pieces of paper. She would pull off a few, stick them to her arm and them to the paper one by one. Good thing her arm was not hairy! Of course, many it was at one time and she de-fuzzed it with the stickies! 🙂 She provided me with lots of scary hospital reading material and then I had a seat to wait for my next step.

Next was the RN. She was so funny! We laughed about everything. I talked about my mom being a nurse and we reminisced about the old ‘dressed fully in white from head to toe’ scenario. She burned her white nurse’s hat when they no longer had to wear them. I am sure many nurses did! She explained the procedure and how my days would go at the hospital. She explained that I would be called the day before my surgery (the 12^th) to tell me when to show up for surgery on the 13^th. I would need to come to the 10^th floor and sign in to wait. Then someone will come and take me away to be dressed and then go to the OR. After surgery and when I wake up, as long as my blood pressure is not too low, I am moved to the 9^th floor to convalesce.  Usually the day after surgery, I do the ‘swallow’ test, to make sure there are no leaks. Yes please! Let’s make sure of that! 🙂 Then if I passed that test, I get to go home the next day. Whoot!

Next was the pharmacy technician. She made sure all drugs and vitamins were logged and that they knew what I was taking and when. We had already had a phone conversation about what I was taking before, so this was really quick. She was training a new technician, so it was very entertaining. 🙂

I was next scheduled for an ECG. Because of my blood pressure, they wanted to make sure the ol’ ticker would stand for the surgery. I remember my last ECG. I was stripped down and cold gel was spread over certain points all over my torso and chest. Then huge sucker pads were attached. It was weird! But advancements in medicine made this one easy peasy. I only had to unbutton my shirt and she placed small disposable pads to various areas and one on my leg. Then she attached the electrodes. I felt nothing painful or cold. And chatty! She was so talkative and friendly. She told me some hilarious stories from when she was in school. She must put all of her patients at ease instantly.

After a brief wait in the waiting room (I was watching Pawnathon. It was cool and made me wish I had cable!), I was off to see the anesthesiologist.  He asked the weirdest questions about my teeth and fillings. This is because the breathing tube they insert may do damage. Eek! He explained how the IV may be when I wake up (it may be in my hand instead of my arm) and he also outlined where various pads would be on my body to monitor blood pressure and heartbeat. He also told me when and which medications I could take the day of surgery and then sent me on my way.

The last stop was blood collection. I had to wander up to the 11^th floor, take a number and wait near the kitchen (cruel! I was starving by then). The nurse came and got me and I plunked my butt into a big comfy chair. I think she pulled out 5 vials of blood. It seemed to be a lot! She was very sweet and smiled easily.  It was a super cold day, so conversation was abundant. Welcome to the Atlantic Provinces! If nothing else, there is always the ever-changing weather to chat about.

Alas, all good things must come to an end! That was it for me at the VG.. For now anyway. The elevator ride was interesting. We were going down, hit the 4^th floor when a weird guy got on. He clearly worked for the hospital in one capacity or another.  All of a sudden, all the lower floors that were selected blanked out and we were headed back up. I think the weird guy had an override key or something. Other guests of the elevator were unimpressed! Eventually, I made it to the main floor and was outta there!

It’s funny. I was scared until I went through all of this.  But everyone was wicked nice and really knew what they were doing. I am now completely ready. I have a habit of looking at food blogs and one yesterday really caught my eye. The truth is I. LOVE. BACON. It must be my worst food addiction. As far as I am concerned, bacon should be in everything.  So this bacon burger really did it for me:

It strangely represents why I have such tummy troubles and why I put on so much heart clogging, knee hurting, soul crushing weight. My co-worker was amazed I could look at it and not be craving a burger. However, I was good! It does look absolute, monstrously delicious, but I was okay. I was full of protein smoothie and drinking some delish herbal tea. And it was enough.

I am ridiculously proud of the restraint I have shown and can only strive to make sure it continues. With the amazing support system I have, I cannot help but ROCK IT! 🙂

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