Getting Ready for Friday

I'm feeling great. Thanks for asking.

Yesterday morning, we met with Kathleen, a nurse at Alta Bates hospital. Her job was to prepare me, verbally, for what's ahead on Friday. That, and send me to see Sam (again), who would take an ECG (electrocardiogram), a nasal swipe to look for staph infection, and four vials of blood.

Nobody took my blood pressure or A1C glucose level, but that will all take place Friday morning.

I signed a lot of paperwork: consent for hysterectomy, authorization for surgery (defined as "abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpungo orphorectomy, pelvic/aortic node dissection, possible pelvic reconstruction"), consent for blood transfusion (with two units ordered, just in case I need blood).

The orphorectomy indicates that the ovaries will be removed. (Oh, and I also had to sign paperwork which indicated that I knew I'd be sterile after this surgery. No kidding.) The pelvic mention is probably talking about the lymph nodes to be removed. And the "reconstruction" has to do with what Dr. Stern talked about, moving things around in the abdominal cavity to make sure that any future radiation treatments, if needed, will be successful.

Thankfully, my chest x-ray was cancelled after Kathleen confirmed that I had had one for the biopsy some two months ago.

Everybody was so nice. Kathleen was sympathetic that I couldn't bring a poodle into the OR. Damn rules.